


Cinderaku

by Val_Creative



Category: Code Geass
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, F/M, Humor, M/M, Physical Abuse, Racism, Romance, Service, Sexual Harassment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-30
Updated: 2013-10-12
Packaged: 2017-12-28 02:16:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 24,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/986485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Val_Creative/pseuds/Val_Creative
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>And that's when the world exploded into a heavy cloud of sparkle and pedal-shaped turbofetti.  /Parody of Cinderella and Code Geass.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. how was that a sexual innuendo?

*

**Prologue**

*

 

In like any proper fairytale told to the younger generation, it must (and usually always) start with a slightly-wayward-but-ultimately-in-the-major-plotline-becoming female protagonist. _Well_ … this fairytale doesn't particularly have one… _so_ …

If you could care less about the politics and prejudices between two opposing countries... Fairy Godmothers in drag... green haired witches that pull ninja moves... and very fancy glass slippers-that-aren't-made-of-glass… then by all means, this is not your cup of Oolong.

 

*

**Chapter One**

*

 

" _Cinder-aku_ …!"

Two separate whistles of male laughter crept from underneath the thick, wood door of the tiny room. The boy sitting cross-legged in ashes rolled his green eyes at the obnoxiousness of it — at fat-ringed fists banging, at steel-toed boots shuffling and stomping.

Cinder-aku wasn't a very spiteful nickname…

Or — by any stretch of the imagination — remotely _clever_ …

 _"Eleven-kun! Why haven't you cleaned the front parlor properly? Father will be pissed to see the mud we trampled in all over the new white rugs!"_ What had to have been Bradley (given that it had a vague sensation of nails-on-a- _gritty_ -chalkboard) snickered against the other side of the door. _"You don't want to be whipped bare ass naked with the buckle, now do you?"_

Suzaku stared hard at the round, precious item weighed in his hands. "Bet you'd just _love_ that…"

_"What did you say to me, you little shit?"_

"I said I will be right out to clean the parlor!" he responded with mock-good cheer, lifting up one of the square stones by the unlit fireplace to gently tuck away the old-fashion pocketwatch.

On the way out of his bedroom, Suzaku was blindsided by a large fist to his cheek. Blood bloomed inside his mouth as one of his stepbrother's legs kicked his solar plexus. He felt himself go down to the floor hard as his other stepbrother Kanon chuckled softly nearby.

"Nice face, Eleven. Maybe you should take your comedy performance on the road," the blue-eyed boy quipped, very pleased in the manner of his stance.

"Not if I kill him first…" Bradley grinned manically, showing off his rather large and sharp front molars, and delivered another swift kick to the boy's stomach.

Suzaku let out a dry retch, burying his face away.

"Hey, if you break his ribs he won't be able to stand up! Father will be angry!" Kanon grabbed the cackling man's swinging arm, pulling anxiously, " _Hey! Knock it off_!"

"It is imprudent to fight against trash," Charles spoke up, entering. "Have I not taught you anything? You will gain no merit from it," He slowly unfastened his lavish cloak from his broad shoulders, dark eyes honed on the bleeding figure. "And what are you doing lying about, boy?" he snapped. "How can you accompany my sons to the marketplace if you are falling asleep on my carpet?"

 _"…yes, sir…._ " Suzaku gasped, heaving himself onto his knees in a bowing position. Red dripped from his open, stinging mouth. Charles watched on, sneering, disgusted.

"And you will clean that stain when you return. No excuses."

 

*

 

And, of course, in our story… there must be a handsome and selflessly heroic Prince Charming…

 

*

 

Around the same time the three heirs of the House of Waldstein climbed into their carriages destined for the previously mentioned marketplace, at the Britannian Royal Castle — someone had been caught trying to break the rules. The perpetrator himself tugged at his unfashionable, tattered concealing robes as one of his more responsible sisters fought to keep him in place.

"No! _Lelouch!_ You'll get yourself caught by the Royal Knights!" Euphemia huffed, straining on the balls of her high heels as he tugged again, almost sending her stumbling forward (except that he barely had the strength). "There is _no one person_ in this village that won't recognize you for your features!"

"That's why I have these clothes. I can keep my face covered," Lelouch insisted, smiling thinly and letting go of his brown cloak. The pink-haired girl fell over her skirt, crying out in surprise with elbows on the marble floor, and then glared up at his smug smile.

Prince Charming, _indeed_ …

"You just want to make Mother and Father furious at you!" Euphemia accused, getting back on her feet and dusting her overly sized and silk, pink ruffles off.

"It has nothing to do with them."

Her brightly-hued lavender eyes blinked in confusion as Lelouch's face darkened.

He muttered, "Forgive me for speaking so frankly against our parent's wishes, Euphy… but I want something better than to be trapped behind castle walls on my own accord like the rest of our siblings. Or be married off to some _fool_ because of an archaic protocol…"

"But it is tradition to be married to your chosen fiancé when you turn eighteen!"

Lelouch sneered. "Just because you happen to _like_ yours…"

She blushed profusely.

"Regardless…I don't believe that it will result in a setback if I am gone for merely an hour or so…" he added, a triumphant twitch lifting a corner of his long mouth, as his elder sister chewed on her lipstick lip nervously — Euphemia could never say no to him for long.

Her own fault if he was detained by the Knights. He was known for being a troublemaker. She should have known better.

After a moment, Euphemia turned her back to him, clutching her full skirts crossly and in silence.

Lelouch took his chance without looking back.

 

*

 

Meanwhile, back at the marketplace, Suzaku grew weary of staring at the endless rows of food like rotting melons and cracked walnuts in carts, or at barters yelling sales about obviously stolen jewelry. But he wasn't about to defy his stepfather's wishes of helping his sons shop. It wasn't an option.

He carried the heavy bags of what Bradley and Kanon bought, without much effort (very much use to the forced labor). With the same fashion of effortlessness, he pulled in the curious and eager stares of the female market-goers. Even decked out in the predictable 'slave boy' ragged clothing, his looks otherwise were nowhere near ugly _or_ deterring — even if strongly Japanese.

And neither one of his stepbrothers approved of this attention.

For the second time that day, Suzaku was caught off-guard. The connected kick to his side had been half-hearted at best but the boy dropped the bags, spilling their contents onto the cobblestone road. One of the rolling oranges was crushed by a passing horse's hoof, another stolen by a hungry child.

Kanon sneered, walking off with a sweep of his chartreuse-colored cloak. "You are so clumsy, Eleven. It's damned embarrassing to be in your company sometimes…"

"Oh, Cinder- _idiot_ , it looks like I've got some mud on my new boots." His assaulter Bradley laughed maliciously, jabbing the steel toe of his boot into Suzaku's chest. "How about licking it off?" He added enough pressure to cause his victim to grit his teeth painfully.

That's when _it happened_.

One of the escaped oranges from Suzaku's bags returned to them, bouncing off Bradley's skull and oozing sticky, citrus liquid into his also orange, spiky hair. Livid, the nobleman whirled around — the marketplace was crowded but visibly, a tall figure in a heavy, brown cloak a yard away pointed in the direction of a hungry child running full speed away. Bradley swore, following the child doggedly.

Suzaku's eyebrows lowered in suspicion as the stranger swished his cloak dramatically, approaching him, presenting a helping hand out. "Are you alright?"

He did not accept it. Of course. Why trust a stranger who _swished_?

"Did you throw it?"

"Indeed, I wonder who the perpetrator was _…"_   the stranger mused aloud.

By how his husky, handsome voice went — Suzaku sensed an extremely _arrogant_ smirk beneath the cloak-hood.

"What is your name?" Suzaku asked him, now frowning but intrigued.

The cloaked figure paused noticeably before murmuring, " _Rolo_. Rolo Lamperouge." He had not moved his hand from Suzaku's airspace. "And you have a name, fellow?"

"Suzaku."

Although a bit unsteady, he rose to his own feet, signaling Rolo to withdraw his offer.

"A stubborn one, aren't you?"

 

*

 

"Should we mine the mountain, dearest?"

The woman with black, coiling hair looked up from stretching over to tie her riding boots — nudging away her bobbing ladies-in-waiting who clucked their tongues in disapproval and fretted in hushed whispers to each other when Marianne the Flash made it very clear she had no patience for them.

" _Ohoho~"_   A slow, sexy smile spread over her alabaster features as she chuckled at her husband, "That sort of talk so early in the day? I just laced my corset, love. Surely it could wait until sunset…"

The distinguished King Jeremiah Gottwald — of the most royal and the noble Houses founded on Britannian soil — blushed like an inexperienced virgin across his coffee-colored cheeks. "How _impudent of you, my Queen_! That was not what I was deliberating!" he sputtered.

"You make it appallingly easy for me," Marianne countered with the same smile, her violet eyes crinkling with pleasure — even as her ladies scoffed at her brusque attitude, shuffling away in their petticoats and pearls in embarrassment. "About that mountain in the Kyoto region… have our ambassadors discerned if the Eleven ambassadors will agree to the sakuradite treaty?"

"Nothing has been drawn up," Jeremiah said, sinking back into his velvet, blue throne. He shaded his eyes with one hand and sighed, "I do not wish for more conflict between the nations when we have come so far. But our nation and our kingdom depend on that supply of sakuradite."

"If it is a war, then I will fight beside you," she said calmly.

His orange eyes crinkled up as well as his Queen marched up the steps. She marched with all the power and dignity he admired in her from when he first laid eyes on her. She pressed her fingertips to her lips and then stroked his gently. "…Where ever would I be without you…?"

" _YOUR MAJESTY! YOUR MAJESTY! I CAUGHT A RAT_!"

One of their daughters raced from the hallway, dragging along another who sobbed loudly. Carine le Britannia scowled, shrieking as she grabbed a fistful of the princess's pink, flowing hair, " _HAVE HER PUNISHED FOR HER AUDACITY! WHIP HER IN THE COMMON STREETS! HANG HER IN THE GALLOWS_!"

"There will be no need for such beastly talk. And did I not tell you to stop bullying your older sister?" Marianne said sternly to her youngest, "What has she done to deserve such treatment?"

" _TELL YOUR QUEEN WHAT YOU HAVE DONE, YOU HORRIBLE WRETCH!"_ Carine threw Euphemia forward roughly in the direction of the thrones. She caught herself before tripping, sniffling through the agony in her scalp and her terror.

"O…oh…" Euphemia le Britannia squeaked, "He has escaped again… it is all my fault, Mother, Father…"

At the sound of this, as if accustomed to this sort of vague news, the King groaned into his hands, sinking further into his seat as if wanting to vanish into the luxurious cushions. His wife joined in with a short, curt groan, narrowing her eyes.

"… _Again_?"

 

*


	2. someone obviously has a mask fetish

*

**Chapter Two**

*

 

"You truly are a stubborn one, aren't you?"

Again with that _damned_ arrogant, airing of a voice. Suzaku, of course, refused help to his feet from his so-called "rescuer" from another sibling beat down in the center of the marketplace that afternoon. ( _...Or had it been the street urchin? Eh. Details.)_ He examined a muddy stain on the back of his patched trousers.

What a stressful day it was steadily becoming.

This — _Rolo Lamperouge_ — asked him, his cockiness fading off to a more serious bearing, "Does this often happen to you?"

Suzaku thought he was inquiring about Bradley.

"More often than I should like to recall…" The brunet mumbled, patting down the rest of his clothes. "But, I am so used to it… I don't think much of what someone else would assume…"

"If I may be so boldest as to say to you... _Suzaku_ , was it?... your character nor your physical features do not match of that brute of an ox."

Suzaku had to smile nervily at that insult. "Not by blood, but by marriage," he explained. "He is somewhat of a stepbrother and cousin to me."

"... I see. The act itself was unprovoked?"

"My presence is much like a stain to my… family." He swept his green eyes momentarily over his pants, burying his hands impulsively into the woolen, hideous material that he knew too well everyday.

The other boy made a disgusted noise through his nostrils. " _Foul_ _nobles_ …"

"Not an admirer, I take it."

'Rolo' made a sound like he was going to speak up and instead made a strangled, startled noise. Suzaku stared dumbfounded as the other boy did a weird dancing twirl before realizing that he was whipping his cloak out of the claws of a thin-looking alley cat pawing at him.

"It's just a cat, Rolo." Suzaku laughed, crouching to closely observe the sleek, brown fur of the purring creature that was now rubbing at 'Rolo's' ankles affectionately. "He seems quite taken with you, in fact."

The cloaked boy grunted and sounded uneasy, gently prodded the persistent beast away with the tip of his studded, leather boot, "I don't really like animals. With the exception of riding stallions."

When Suzaku stretched out a hand to pet its scarred ears, the cat hissed angrily, scampering off with its stubby tail erect and fluffed. "Wait, kitty! Here, kitty!" Suzaku called after it, standing up and knocking an elbow into the other boy.

As to be expected, it had enough momentum to knock the other boy into a passing market woman in the square, snagging the hood of his cloak on a hook of her canary's cage. The blue-haired woman gasped awed and froze in place as the now exposed boy hastily trying to unhook his filthy cloak.

Suzaku turned to the east end of the market as there came distant calling. The Royal Knights stomped towards them, waving bayonets.

And then… from nowhere… a spindly, _soft_ hand clasped his, dragging him from their approaching figures and quickening the pace as both boys ran for it.

His companion managed to dodge and weave them by indifferent passerbys with an easy rhythm — _a familiar rhythm_ — holding tight to Suzaku even as they stumbled over loose livestock on the cobblestone street. For a split second, one of the Knights caught up, screaming out in victory as he clasped the back of 'Rolo's' cloak — and Suzaku fought instinctively to free them both, roundhouse kicking the man's helmet and visor clean off his stocky head.

Somewhere past a double divide of the streets, Suzaku found himself pushed into the parting of a semi-dark alley, sweating and lightly panting. Suddenly, thrust up against a cool brick wall as the cloaked boy pressed them flat — sounding more winded; his faint, warm breath ghosting Suzaku's cheek as they waited silent.

 _"Which direction did the Prince head for?"_ Clanging of metal armor from the mouth of the alley.

Suzaku watched, adrenaline blaring, as the boy with beautiful, violet eyes leaning with a skinny arm over him, held a long, delicate finger over his closed mouth, signaling him to keep quiet. Fortunately for them, Suzaku could barely make his dried tongue unglue from the roof of his mouth.

A part of it may or may not have had to do with the caustic look in those spellbinding eyes.

" _How the hell should I know? Just keep looking, soldier!"_

How in the damned and hateful cosmos did someone who was supposed to be male look so... _gorgeous_? Suzaku had half a delirious desire to grope along in the dark just to check if his theory was right. But any noises resulting from that desire might give them away...

_"Aye, captain."_

Whoever 'Rolo' was… he was the prettiest boy who had ever forced himself on Suzaku in a run-down alley…

As the sounds of the Royal Knights (" _Knightmares_ " — the villagers living in the kingdom and surrounding whispered to each other based upon their legendary brutality as those men swarmed) mingled together into the distance — the other boy glanced at him, a reassured smile complimenting his pretty boy features.

"That was very close. Impressive kick, by the way."

"Do you do this often to most people you first meet?" Suzaku returned the smile… very slowly. He was somewhat cautious now by the turn of events. _(Prince? Was that what those men were talking about?)_ "And why were they chasing us? Were they after you? I'm not impressed by lies, by the way."

The black-haired boy sneered, blushing guiltily, and moved off the other boy who rubbed at his stiff shoulders from the earlier unkind impact. "I suppose it was to be revealed at some point or another." He cleared his throat, raising his head and straight nose high. "Yes. I have lied to you intentionally and I implore your forgiveness. Lamperouge was my mother's maiden name. My real name is Lelouch vi Britannia of the Royal House of the Britannians, the only son of Jeremiah and Marianne Britannia."

"Why did you lie to me in the first place?"

"So that the stale fairytale plot would become more exciting. How dull would it have been if you'd have known from the beginning that I was Prince Charming?"

Suzaku paused, cocking his eyebrows up.

"… _what in the gods are you talking about_?"

Lelouch waved his hand exaggeratedly at him, nose still upturned. "Nevermind. Well, now that we've gotten that out of the way, I think I know a place where we can talk without worry about anymore distractions." He led the way out. Suzaku was still somewhat confused by the broken fourth wall but followed nonetheless.

"If you are a prince, then why are you wandering a commoner's marketplace by yourself? This can't be normal to someone who lives in a majestic castle."

" _Majestic…_ " Lelouch snorted like the word was hilarious. "More like _dreary._ Would you like to be trapped forever behind stone walls? I find it no more different than being a prisoner in a cell."

"Have you ever been to prison?"

"Are you out of your mind? I'm a prince."

Suzaku pointed out, "Well, how can you say that if you have never been to prison?"

Lelouch stopped just outside the front door of his destination, giving him a strange look.

"Stubborn as well as critical…" he murmured. "You are far more fascinating than I first assumed."

The first thing to hit Suzaku as he entered the building after his companion was the full range of colors in his vision. Mannequins stared faceless as well as eyeless at him from the insides of shop windows and from many shelves surrounding bare desks. Atop of the mannequins' heads were… _many, many masks_.

They were an array of shapes and sizes whether half or full — accented with plumes of dyed feathers, glitter smeared lips, paper maché curls like jester hats tied to bells, fringe, carved wood, and leather horns. Stucco, metal teeth, tri-cornered hats, black and silver and rainbow bases, pearls and yellow rhinestones. The Britannian prince seemed amused by the overwhelmed expression on Suzaku and pointed with a long, leathered finger to a row of beak-nosed and hook-nosed masks, "You will find these Italian masks at most high class attendings these days. I am familiar with this shop. They sell exquisite products from around the world."

The brunet peered over to a dark blue half-mask extravagantly arranged with matching feathers and a giant white feather sewn into the headband of the mask.

"It _is_ amazing…"

"I have asked my family to hold a masquerade ball for my eighteenth birthday at the castle for such extravagant occasions. And… I should like _you_ to attend it."

Suzaku saw he was in no manner joking in the way those beautiful, violet eyes focused so keenly on him. His tongue was beginning to dry again in his mouth accompanied this time by a sudden, amiable flutter in his stomach. "I…I'm Japanese," he explained, stammering a little in his nervousness.

"Does it matter if your face is covered? You are of age, aren't you?"

"Eighteen and several months."

"Then what is the problem?" Lelouch asked, eyes narrowing at the other boy's obvious difficulty with the subject. "It is not like you are an ignorant slave…"

"To my own household I am. I would have been shipped out to the army years ago if they didn't need a house servant."

"And your parents allow this sort of vulgarity?"

"My real parents have been long since dead," Suzaku admitted openly, shrugging as Lelouch stared aghast back at him and shut his mouth. "I call my uncle "my stepfather" since he is my only guardian… he was my mother's brother and of full Britannian blood while she was not. She married Genbu Kuruugi, my father, who owned land and money and was respected by the Japanese people."

Suzaku's eyes hazed over as he added with an odd and strained tone, "He was… hurt when the war between the Japanese and Britannians started and soon after, my mother died of a broken heart. By then, our name was disgraced and everything was taken away… so now my stepfather lives off his credit for being in the noble Britannian bloodline of this nation."

"I would not be surprised if your Father's death was not accidental," Lelouch said grimly. Suzaku bowed his head forward, his brown hair shielding part of his empty face, "Suzaku…?" From one side, the shop keeper of the building approached them with a bright smile.

"How many I be of assistance to you fine gentlemen today?"

"Ah, yes." Lelouch turned away. "My friend and I are trying to find him an item for the masquerade my family is hosting. I wonder if you have any _Columbina Cordone_ masks for him to appraise…?"

"I believe I do." The older man with wavy, dirty-blonde hair winked, showing them to an eye-level shelf of smaller eye-masks. "Do these items please his Majesty?"

"Thank you very much, Diethard," Lelouch said offhandedly, taking in Suzaku's sudden questioning glance. "Diethard does not call the Knightmares on me since I help, to the best of my abilities, to collect and buy masks for his business." He picked up one nearest to his right — emerald green trimmed with copper brocade and a gold leaf finish. "Here, I'll help you pick out something. Do you know why masks are so important during our formal celebrations? It illustrates the noble's virtuous nature and their idealized beauty, masking away their gluttonous and jealous natures."

With both hands, Lelouch held it steady to Suzaku's reddening face, confident in his decision, and offered him a charming smile.

"Mm, I thought so with this one. The color goes well with the shade of your skin. And with your eyes."

At the flattering remark, that pleasant flutter returned this time in the space below where Suzaku's lungs were.

One of Lelouch's fingers unintentionally brushed his face. He took a sharp breath in.

"They are very _… nice eyes_ …" Lelouch acknowledged, swallowing noticeably, and quietly ran a gloved thumb over Suzaku's fleshy cheekbone. Suzaku laughed at him but with no nastiness, trying desperately to hide the fact that the closer and closer they stood together — his cheek would grow warmer and warmer.

"Are you attempting to court me, your Highness...?"

This time, Lelouch's face burned. He threw himself back, sounding both shocked and guilty of what he was accused, " _I-Idiot_ , watch how you speak to others!"

Suzaku had to laugh again at the irony.

 _Prince Charming_ , _indeed_ …

 

*

 

They had no idea who tipped off the Knightmares… maybe it _had_ been the shop keeper despite how well Lelouch trusted him… but as they left…

(Suzaku ended up paying for his own mask, even though Lelouch insisted more than once to help — _not_ because he had assumed Suzaku would have little gold — _but_ because Lelouch essentially pressured him to promise to attend this ball, _thrusting_ a gold and silver-filigreed envelope at him...)

…somehow they knew that both boys were inside and sprang out from the crowded marketplace like a single, merciless unit. Lelouch watched it happen all in slow motion as one or two stronger men grabbed him around the waist, pulling him further out from Suzaku's outreaching fingertips. "Let me go! Damn you! _SUZAKU_!"

" _LELOUC_ —!" Another Knightmare slammed the back of Suzaku's head against the nearest brick wall, stunning him, and his entire body crumpled against that wall unmoving as the rest of the men hurried after the group who had hustled a horror-struck Lelouch into a nearby carriage.

 

*

 

"Your Mother is furious," was the first thing he heard as Lelouch entered the Britannian Royal Castle, the Knightmares dispersing as their King approached him. "She wants to see you at the throne room to talk about your punishment..." Jeremiah frowned sympathetically down at his severe-looking and tight-lipped son, making a great sigh. "...Must you?"

"Must I _what_?" Lelouch snapped, facing away from his father as they made their way down the polished marble corridor. The young prince purposely made a point to glare at a passing Euphemia who was being escorted back to her chambers by her handmaidens and who glared back at him feebly with trembling lips.

"Must you make that face as if you were a small child being treated unfairly?"

Lelouch muttered, "I might as well be that child."

Inside the throne room, Queen Marianne sat cross-legged in her luxurious throne, tapping her lavender-colored fingernails over the plush hand rest.

"It is most certainly reassuring to see that the Royal Knights know how to take orders," she huffed, sending an ugly look at the guards at the front gates who cast their eyes down ashamed. "Lelouch, my darling, I love you with all my heart. But I cannot further abstain from punishing you when you deliberately disregard the rules your Father and I have set for your siblings and yourself—"

" _They are utterly ridiculous._.."

"What was that, Lelouch?" When he made no indication of continuing, Marianne said, eerily calm, "Since we have not sent out the invitations yet, I might as well cancel the masquerade for your birthday. Maybe that would teach you the proper lesson."

His violet eyes bulged as Lelouch shouted up at her, "You mustn't, Mother!"

In his panic, he remembered the agonized expression on Suzaku's tan face as his body slide lifelessly against the bricks.

' _It mustn't… I must… Suzaku, please be…'_

"I needed… fresh air... for important decision plaguing my thoughts for some time." Lelouch's mouth started running without him to think his words over. "And in exchange for the party, if it will please my King and Lady Mother, I will formally announce my engagement to the Lady Fenette that evening at the masquerade."

As Jeremiah stared openly, Marianne clapped a sly hand over her mouth, a grin stretching over her rouged lips.

"Very well."

 

*


	3. this is why you lock your doors

 

*

**Chapter Three**

*

 

" _DAMN IT ALL, he is heavy_ …!"

"… _if you were going to complain this much… then why did you insist upon dragging him out here…?_ "

Two female voices. Talking loudly above him. About him…? Suzaku felt he was floating, swinging lifelessly and slowly through dark space…

…where the _HELL_ was he?

" _I couldn't carry him all by myself out from the marketplace, you know…!"_

…that pissed off snarl... it almost sounded like—

"Kallen?" Suzaku managed weakly through his meddled and somewhat painful consciousness, squinting an eye through the clearing fuzz that was his vision. The full-figured girl with two short, thick red braids carrying him — still grasping at his limp hands — let out a relieved breath. And then proceeded to let go of him, allowing gravity to send Suzaku's limp head crashing to the ground.

Despite what would soon set the world record for the nastiest bruise... Suzaku supposed that he should have been counting his blessings that the Knightmares hadn't _killed_ him in the process. "I thought the point was to get him _OUT_ of danger," remarked the other girl's voice.

Kallen send a scowl as Suzaku's vision tried to clear again.

This time he stared up at this girl (with a lot of lime-green hair framing her slim face) leaning over him with bored, amber eyes. She snapped her fingers centimeters from his nose. He blinked alarmed at the sudden motion and how… _like magic_ … the agony was dismissed from his head and replaced with a low throb.

"What happened to you, Suzaku?" Kallen did not catch the exchange between the boy and girl, watching him concerned as he gingerly felt himself over. "I found you lying unconscious in one of the alleyways. Were you attacked by dealers? Did you see who did it?"

_Hands. Rough. Holding him steadfast. Lelouch looked so… helpless in those men's arms… and then the world went black…_

"No," Suzaku said, closing his eyes and smiling lightly to show that he was alright; yes, he was lying but he couldn't afford to talk about what _exactly_ happened in mixed company. He was thankful, however, for the cool and relaxing breeze floating around the field they were in as it gently touched his sweating face.

"To tell you the truth… my brain still feels a little rattled at the moment…"

"Are you sure you are okay though?" Kallen insisted, "You look pale..."

He repeated, still patting the space where a bump _should_ have been ( _how in the world did she…_?), "Don't worry about me. Besides, shouldn't you be more worried about being caught helping me back there? Your aristocratic reputation would be tarnished if you were seen with someone who was Japanese."

"—cut the crap, Suzaku," The red-haired girl crossed her arms under her fleece bodice huffily, frosty blue eyes narrowing with displeasure, "you know damn well that I am half Japanese by my own right."

"But the nobles don't. And your Father would get upset."

"Don't worry about what my Father thinks. You know I don't— _oh for the love of your parents_ —what is so _FASCINATING_?" Kallen snapped irritably at Suzaku (no longer concerned for his well being), who pulled his bedeviled gaze from the green-haired girl paused from twisting dandelion stems around her wrists solemnly.

"Is she a friend of yours?" he offered.

Kallen kept her tightened hold under her prominent bosom, speaking sulkily out of the corner of her mouth, "...I should be inquiring that question to you instead… with the way you gawk at her…"

"That is the problem with this country. Such strict regulations on everyday behavior... if I did something like this in a busy street corner…" The other girl hiked up her own black, wool skirts, exposing one side of her thigh (Suzaku's eyes went as large as carriage wheels; the red-haired girl sputtering her horror as her face lit up to a similar shade of her hair color)— "I'd have my head lopped off."

"Where you…come from…do…people act like that _regularly_?" Kallen asked through her hands as the girl dropped her skirts back into place.

"I wouldn't have my head lopped off," she replied, her golden-amber eyes shining with an abnormal amount of self-satisfaction. "I don't have a name if you were wondering. I'm not from anywhere particular either. I have forgotten anything to do with being a mortal. I've been called a great many things in my lifetime, but above all else, I have been called ' _Witch'_."

(… _A witch? Like in storybooks? With cauldrons?)_ Suzaku dredged up from the Britannian nursery rhymes that his mother had retold from her own memory that witches were depicted as decrepit, old hermit-women with facial abnormalities. This was _most certainly_ not the case.

...at the very least … she was _helpful_ … his head wasn't hurting so badly anymore…

 

 

*

 

_"Miss Witch!"_

_She was starting to leave the fields outside the marketplace come sunset, as Kallen took her leave from them, and Suzaku raced after this green-haired immortal._

_Dandelions and purple wildflowers twined elegantly to both of her wrists and up to her left upper arm tattooed with a strange, red symbol. Suzaku almost mistook it for a distant bird in flight. "What do I look like to you, boy?" Her lips curled into a queer, little smile. "A fairy godmother?"_

_She leaned on his shoulder, tilting her face to the underside of his jaw as he froze at the sudden intrusion, at the intimacy of her eyelashes quivering on his skin. "I don't make contracts with others or owe debts to any living man. The place you seek is the Acre Wood. It is not far from your master's estate. When you discover that you no longer have a place to belong, to turn to anymore, it is your best option."_

 

 

*

 

Deep from his personal musings— treading up the pebble and sand-sewn path to the doorway of his stepfather's home ( _or was it really?...?_ his head was starting to hurt again thinking about it) — Suzaku answered back wryly to her memory, "There is no place I belong."

"There you are, _Cinder_ -aku!"

From the parlor, Bradley said gaily, "Father has been summoning for you. You'd better hurry before you are thrashed beyond comprehension..."

Not reassured by how his stepbrother's eggplant-colored eyes were gleaming like tiny daggers, Suzaku did as he was told anyway. He gave a lingering bow to the massive, festooned build of his stepfather facing him by the parlor's fireplace's mantle, tapping his beefy fingers impatiently on his velvet tunic.

"Where are your bloody manners, you _ignorant_ piece of trash? Is callow silence any way to greet the accomplished and generous Master of your household?"

"My apologies, my Lord," Suzaku mumbled, his upper body still lowered to face the floor.

"Did you happen to forget something in the marketplace today?"

Emerald green eyes widened in dismay as it hit him. ( _The runaway oranges… the bags of groceries…)_

Suzaku raised his head, opening his mouth, and uttered a pained groan as Charles punched him brutally and square in his stomach. He heard Bradley gasp behind him in delight as a volley of continued kicks and punches — _tearing the helpless skin in his face open with the sharp edgings of expensive and chunky rings_ — and the man sent his nephew headlong into the carpet, clenching his aching body.

 _This is what I deserve_ …... _this punishment_ …

He knew he could easily escape his stepfather. And Bradley. Physically, he knew he was not weak.

One of his green eyes began to swell up in its socket. Suzaku held his breath as his limbs numbed.

_…is all I have to repent…_

 

 

*

 

The back garden's towering angel atop the center fountain wept steadily. The temperate water streamed down the porcelain base to the lowest basin where Lelouch touched the flats of his palms to the bottom of it. The misty vapor coming off, from a wind picking up from the west of the castle grounds, kissed his temples lightly.

Someone with dainty heels came up behind him with meek but purposeful steps. "Are you still furious with me, Lelouch?"

He turned his head towards her. Euphemia twisted something (probably a handkerchief) behind her back frantically, chewing on her slowly-beginning-to-redden lower lip as she tried to gauge his manner. From behind her, a good foot away, their older sister Cornelia watched them thoughtfully.

He explained blankly that he was feeling far too troubled to be mad at the present moment.

Euphemia made an understandable noise, sitting down on the rim of the basin where Lelouch still hunched over elbow deep in fountain water, "Do you still remember when Nana threw fits when you left the grounds to travel? No one would be able to console her until you had returned or until she passed out from exhaustion after destroying everything she could get her hands on. I saw what Nana did to some very good quality swan-feather pillows when she got worked up enough…"

Her lavender eyes peered up up sadly at the gilded name below the angel.

"The accident was horrible. Everyone knew that. I still remember coming downstairs that morning and Father had her in his arms—"

" _Euphemia_!" Her sister barked, and Euphemia flinched. " _Now is not the time for this_!" Cornelia marched up to Lelouch who looked instead at her expressionlessly, as she ground out, "Lelouch, I need to see you inside about an important matter. Get your hands out of Nunnally's grave—I apologize for my harshness but it's becoming increasingly unhealthy for someone like you, the one to be next to ascend the throne, to be lingering at this fountain like a mourning lover."

"She was your sister as well, _Highness_ ," Lelouch's eyes darkened, returning to emotion.

She grasped one of his arm, yanking him dripping towards the palace and leaving their sister to fret by herself.

"I've accepted her passing. The rest of our family has. Lelouch, you are the only one," Cornelia said, iris-colored eyes softening as they entered one of the Eastern drawing rooms, as he retched himself from her clasp on him and rubbed at his sore arm.

"I ask you to hold back on that for the time being, and listen to what I have to tell you." He yelped as one of her hands messed with his black, silky hair, making a grouchy face at her as she gave him a rare smile. "Mother and Father wanted me to show you what you would be wearing at your masquerade ball tomorrow."

His sister's smile widened sadistically as Cornelia held it to him proudly. A moment of silence.

He started laughing like it was the funniest thing he had ever seen.

"…I think you grabbed Cardine's outfit by mistake, sister dear. There isn't a chance I'd wear something so…" Lelouch emphasized his point by brushing his fingers over the top's hem, "… _frilly_."

"It is not frill, it is ruffle," she claimed. "But that is not what is important here. It is not a mistake, Mister _"Prince Charming"_ of Britannia. This is what you are wearing tomorrow night. At least for the first half."

"…you do realize you are presenting _me_ … with a _dress_ …?"

"It was the Queen's idea of your punishment in continually breaking the rules."

Lelouch gulped, no longer laughing, eyeing the item in Cornelia's hands as if it would demonically possess him. "If I refuse… _then_ …?"

" _Then_ … she made it clear that the ball would be canceled."

"The invitations are already sent! It would be absolute _madness_ to attempt to retract them!"

"This is no idle threat. You forget who you are dealing with," Cornelia said ominously. "And I need to have you do a fitting to make sure this size is the right one, Queen's orders."

 

 

*

 

Euphemia simpered at her guest, poking her head through another door.

"I am almost certain that Cornelia took him here…" she explained. "I did not quite catch what business they were attending to…"

The Lady Shirley Fenette said uncertainly, twirling her orange curls between her delicate, freckled fingers, "If my fiancé is too busy, perhaps I could come back another time for a proper visitation…?" she asked. Already too caught up in matchmaker mode, Euphemia grinned, waving a similarly delicate hand in her direction in disagreement.

"I know he would be _thrilled_ to see you, dear…! Oh, I think I hear them!" she squealed in a whisper, gesturing the other girl to stand beside her as Euphemia thrust open the double doors to the drawing room. "Dearest brother, I have brought to you on this magnificent day your belove—!"

Her mouth dropped open in shock — at the image of her older sister Cornelia pulling the laces of a corset (a slimming and under-the-bust corset) on her grimacing, little brother, as her siblings gawked back at the pair stock-still in the corridor.

"… _oh my word_."

Shirley and Lelouch's faces turned beet red immediately after the sentence was finished.

Our story's "Prince Charming" let out a shriek as he crouched down to hide behind a British two-seater. Shirley lowered her canary yellow, summer hat over her face, stammering, " _Y-Y-You needn't be ashamed… for someone so lovely, your Highness… I-I-I do not mind if you wear pretty things…_ "

The evil-doer Cornelia recovered from momentary surprise, laughing at her brother's expense, "See, Lelouch? Even your bride-to-be thinks it suits you…"

Shirley joined in, albeit nervously, hat still lowered.

Euphemia started chewing her lip again.

Lelouch smacked the back of his head against the wood beam of the couch.

Until he saw stars.

 

 

*


	4. not sure if she can fly this thing

*

**Chapter Four**

*

 

"When exactly, Father, are we going to get rid of this freak?" Kanon's powder-blue eyes roamed over Suzaku lying motionless to the parlor's carpet. "He's so _... filthy_ ," the older son said, jerking up the edge of Suzaku's chin with a buckled boot and wrinkling his nose. "Just look at the state of him."

"I suppose that you have a point, my son..." Charles nodded, also taking the opportunity to examine the heavy damage he had done to his nephew from the fireplace mantle, "I am becoming weary of his sad excuse of an existence... perhaps it would be more practical to do away with him while the time is appropriate..."

Bradley's eyes suddenly rounded out in anger as his eyes sought something familiar-looking on Suzaku's person. "Look, Father!" He spat out, digging into one of the boy's ragged pockets and exposing the golden-and-silver-filigreed envelope from within, "The bastard _stole_ one of our invitations!"

"I did not!" Suzaku yelled back at him, finding the strength in his sullied honor to heave himself into a sitting position, cupping his bleeding left eye, "It's _mine_!"

 _"What a lie!_ " The orange-haired man hissed poisonously, "Why the hell would you have one to begin with, you little shit? No one knows you even exist!"

 _"I said it's mine!_ "

"Mark my words, boy," His stepfather's face darkened to a foul purplish as he thrust a finger at the fallen boy, "one more despicable word from your vile mouth and you will wish you were ever born."

Bradley starting laughing, braying like a wild animal, when Suzaku's mouth visibly shut at those words — and aimed a kick for the brunet's head. Twisting his body quickly, the swing missed wide. Suzaku sprung to his feet and bolted for the front doorway of the estate — jostling an exceedingly shocked Kanon aside as he did so — and continued for the woods off the grounds.

Charles grabbed Bradley's shoulder as he moved to pursue the injured boy, "Leave him. He has nowhere to go. We have other business to attend to."

 

*

 

He heard no footsteps behind him for a good while. No furious calls of a return from his step-family.

Suzaku didn't really know where he was running to... but he couldn't go back now.

_His treasure... underneath the fireplace's stone..._

He halted at a clearing, nearest a fork in a dirt path, and slammed a fist against the sign embellished _"Acre Woods"._ His body sweated copiously and _hurt_ like he had made a round trip from scaling up from the deepest pits of Hell. Suzaku knew— if anything, he had to go back for what he had left behind.

 _When_?— he couldn't be sure.

Before he could think on it for longer, the brush nearest him parted to reveal someone from behind it. Someone walking intently towards him.

A petite-looking girl dressed in a puffed-up, goldenrod-colored bear suit with a sewn-in red tee shirt. She held in her arms a stuffed tiger, and clicked at her fingertips a hot-pink-and-white PS2 diary. Suzaku could vaguely make out those details with his good eye... and wondered if he _really_ _was_ awake...

She spoke up with a very informative tone to him, "Click your heels three times."

Suzaku stared.

Blankly.

"Click your heels three times," the petite girl with the stuffed animal repeated.

He did so. Cautiously.

And that's when the world exploded into a heavy cloud of sparkle and pedal-shaped turbofetti.

Emerging from it was a floating, cross-dressing, muscular man with very coiffed, bright blond hair. With heavy eyeliner and several braids tied with dark green ribbons trailing off his shoulders — he also had on a muslin close-fitting, demi-riding coat (a cadmium-green hue) over a stomacher (with a big, floppy, white ribbon in the front). His legs were concealed by an ankle-length, full-flared skirt (black, hemmed linen) and a petticoat.

To make everything _ridiculous_ look more so, there were wings on his back — semi-transparent and a shade darker than the blond of his hair.

But Suzaku couldn't make out all of those _fancy_ and _unreasonably complicated_ features about the other gentleman so well... seeing as how there was a great amount of filmy blood in his one eye. The girl held up her diary to the newcomer, clicking away at the built-in camera.

"Who summoned me? Was it _YOU_?" The fairy-man gave Suzaku a surprisingly chilling glare before directing it to the girl. "I specifically asked you to _NOT_ tell strangers willy-nilly about how to get in contact with me! That's it— _NO_ —I'm serious this time, Anya—"

Anya said dully, "It's him, Gino."

"Him? Him _wh_ —?" Gino exclaimed, then looking back at the boy with a new, appreciative clarity. "Oh! _Him_! Why did you say something to me first? It's about time!" The blond man landed to the clearing's grass, his yellowish wings fluttering promptly before flattening to his back out-of-sight.

He gasped spectacularly, grasping Suzaku's cut face lightly with both of his hands.

"Oh, just look at this poor handsome face! This cannot be tolerated!" Gino reached behind him to hold up a wand (long as well as ludicrously sparkly and green), mumbled some kind of gibberish under his breath, and gave Suzaku a smart rap on the nose with it. After this was finished, he led Suzaku to a small brook to the side of the clearing. Suzaku's reflection back to him was healed of all the bruising and the wounds. Tentatively, Suzaku wiped his eye to find no bloody residue come back.

To the water's reflection, Gino said, grinning, "Sometimes even _I'm_ impressed with myself."

"Thank you... but... what do you want with me? How do you know me?"

"I'm your Fairy Godmother, silly! Here to make all of your dreams come true!" The fairy-man tapped the tip of his wand against his cheek shrewdly. "You were directed here, weren't you?"

"...Yes, actually." Suzaku remembered Miss Witch mentioning something about _woods..._

"Then everything is settled!" Gino chuckled. "There is no need for you to worry anymore. Though the story did not explain very well how you managed to make it here precisely where you needed to be— ( _Humph, came a small, disembodied voice from nowhere particular. Everyone's a damn critic_.)— you are in fact here where you need to be anyway!"

Inescapably confused, Suzaku decided to ask anyway, "You are _my_ Fairy Godmother?"

"Of course! Since you are the hero—erm, heroine—erm, _whatever_ of the story, you will need my help. How do you think you are going to get into that big, important ball looking as you are?" Gino snorted, giving him a critical once-over, fanning himself with Suzaku's invitation (that now magically returned).

Anya inserted her opinion from the background of their conversation, "...Blue."

At this, the blond man let out an overexcited laugh.

" _Brilliant_! Oh my dear Anya! Why did _I_ think of it?" With another crazed-sounding laugh, Gino smacked Suzaku on the top of his head with his wand.

And then the world exploded again.

Only then coming back into view into it with a horrified, cross-dressing boy clutching at the skirts of his extravagant ball gown.

Pinned to Suzaku's head was a long, cork-screw, brown wig fastened with sapphires. The gown itself a rich blue color with double-ruffles, sacks of damask to the body and train, gold cord and tassels, and with a sky-blue laced standing frill to the décolletage.

...He was a walking, _freaking,_ fairytale princess.

But the really important part to all of that Suzaku was caring about at the moment — _was_ _how damn heavy the entire thing was_ _on his body_! He was astonished that he could remain on his feet. In the distance, a camera clicked.

Suzaku lifted the skirts momentarily to see what was pinching his feet so terribly. Trapping his feet was strangely pointy, opaque slipper-shoes.

"What are these made of?"

"Acrylic." At that not helpful answer, the Japanese boy did not press the matter — but pleaded in a small, tortured voice to be changed back to his original form.

"I know I am supposed to be dressing for a masquerade... and that I am disguising myself from anyone who would suspect me not to be a noble or Japanese... but can I at least wear something that goes with my mask?" Suzaku showed him the copper brocade and green mask with a hopeful expression.

With a dramatic sigh, Gino smacked him on the head again. Harder. Suzaku held back the grimace.

This time, Suzaku looked in the brook's reflection to see himself in a double-breasted, dark suit with a cream damasked satin waistcoat underneath and white, tucked-in cravat. As he placed on his mask, Gino added wistfully, "I like the little green and gold trimmings in the round cuffs myself."

"They are nice," Suzaku agreed, and then looked back down at his feet. "...what about the slippers?"

"The slippers stay." Gino's face completely removed itself of any joking intentions. As Suzaku stiffened up, the fairy-man's smile surfaced back. "Don't give me that look! They will be necessary for later." He hung over Suzaku's shoulder. "You look _delicious_. Your pretty little Prince Charming wont be able to resist you."

"I don't really care if I look _...delicious_ or anything..."

Suzaku frowned, slowly peeling away from Gino's arms. "I know I'm second-guessing myself but what if one of my stepbrothers finds out it's me?"

"It's your wish, isn't it? To change the policies of both opposing countries so that they may live peacefully side-by-side?" Gino asked, his bright blue eyes narrowing seriously. "If we were all slaves to our _what-ifs_ and _but-nots_ then no one would be able to reach their dreams."

At this kernel of wisdom, Suzaku nodded, smiling. "I guess you're right."

"But of course I am. Now, you have until midnight tonight—which is approximately five hours from now—before that little ole spell I put over you breaks and you are easily noticed. Now about your pumpkin..." Gino said, turning to Anya regardfully. There was a long staring contest between them.

"...Anya... my dear, dear companion...?"

She blinked slowly.

"...what in the devil's name are you wearing?"

 _"Cosplay_."

Another moment of silence. Gino arched a blond eyebrow. " _I see_. Well, it has been deemed unnecessary for the time being. I have something better." With a flourish of his wand, she was no longer in the bear suit but in a red schoolgirl uniform, her cotton-candy hair in twin pigtails.

And towering over her was one of the biggest structures Suzaku had ever seen — a giant, white robot mecha.

...Not that Suzaku would know what they were in the alternative universe.

"So when your pumpkin returns to you at the stroke of midnight." The fairy-man paused, glancing at the girl and the robot, " _both of them_ — your disguise shall fail."

"...they are... both the pumpkin?" Suzaku pointed as Anya waved in acknowledgment, climbing into the Lancelot with a bored expression on her face.

...Not that Suzaku would know what it was called.

"I don't know what's going on anymore..." he mumbled to himself.

Gino shoved him in the right direction, chirping over the roar of the engines, "Have a safe journey~! Be sure to buckle in because I'm not sure if Anya knows how to pilot this thing~!"

 

*


	5. cranky cats and cliffhangers

*

**Chapter Five**

*

 

Concerning everybody's safety, Anya knew full well how to pilot a monstrously-sized mecha.

 _However_ … she was not that partial to the idea of _discretion_.

The other elegantly-masked guests shielded themselves as she landed the Lancelot inside the tower-high gates.

Smoky-white exhaust fumes swirled around objects and people within a three foot radius. As Suzaku slapped a hand to his forehead in exasperation and scrambled out of the giant mecha, the pink-haired girl in the red schoolgirl uniform waved halfheartedly to him from the cockpit.

Suzaku waved back uncertainly as she took off, roaring into sunset sky.

He then simpered at the windblown nobles as he passed to enter the palace (thankfully, the effects of the disguising spell on him made them more concerned for themselves than him). Suzaku made sure his copper-brocade eye mask was firmly in place before handing his invite to an uninterested guard.

It was a nice change from reality, actually…

The ballroom dancers made eye contact with him and did not comment on his appearance, or rather did not say much to him… only smiled politely.

He observed Kallen across the chandelier-lit grand chamber talking to her father animatedly, fingering the rod end of her beaded, silver Venetian mask. Despite her frequent and public negative opinions on these extravagant affairs, she looked very much at home in her nobility with her red locks fastened up with diamonds and waltzing with her noble parent with a practiced, ladylike stride.

"Aren't you a _sneaky_ little boy?" A sudden, hot burst of air blew into his ear as a low, saccharine voice spoke into his left ear to interrupt his train of thought, "…Is this your first time at a party like this?"

Suzaku felt his entire body clench up. He backed away, clapping his hand over his accosted ear.

The immortal being at fault smiled in a clearly fake ' _innocent'_ manner. She had pulled her wild green hair into a French twist and contrasted it with a bleeding-eye red ballroom gown, a single string of black pearls pooling at the crest of her breasts exposed by her round jacket bodice.

She pressed her face wordlessly into the brown fur of the straggly-looking cat nestled in her arms.

Suzaku narrowed his eyes at the scarred ears. "Have I seen him before…?" he asked.

"His name is Arthur." The witch said informatively, her unsympathetic, amber eyes peering through the eye pieces of her burgundy half mask trimmed with gray feathers, "And he doesn't like you." To accentuate her point, the kitty batted its paw ferociously at the green-eyed boy and hissed quietly.

The sounds of horns and trumpets signaled the noise level in the room to lower.

A second or two of looking away to the musicians allowed the woman to disappear like a flipping ninja into the crowd of jewelry, waistcoats, and various shapes and sizes of womanly cleavage. The rest of the guests bowed expectantly — he followed suit after a moment — as the Britannian Royal family made their way into the masquerade from one of the double doors nearby, adorned and vibrant in different textures of colored silks and rich velvets in their outfits.

To Suzaku's side, a pinched-faced couple whispered behind their hands. " _…what a disgrace…"_

_"…unable to produce multiple sons to heir…"_

_"…embarrassing excuse for a Prince to our glorious nation…"_

He grit his teeth, moving away from the gossipers as the nobles went back to dancing and conversing.

The King and Queen walked together, hand-in-hand, up to their thrones as their children dispersed within the groups of the guests.

Suzaku's view pinned on one of the slimmer and taller daughters glancing at her surroundings with undisguised mortification. Her waist-length, straight hair swayed over her pale, white shoulders. Her very long and piled, ruffled dress matched the softness of her black hair.

As if it was a magnetic pull, her wide, violet stare picked him out. Her bare mouth slipped open. She came at Suzaku in a whir of dark, supple cloth — hustling into two waiters who sniffed displeased — and her skinny, gloved arms clasped him around the neck, yanking Suzaku's face into her hair.

The story's protagonist processed three _very important_ facts in the span of that moment:

...It was not a woman but a man who had ran across the room to hug him in front of everyone.

...It was a _beautiful_ man, at that.

...His cross-dressing Prince Charming shook like he was crying.

Lelouch buried his hands into the back of Suzaku's suit, his contorted face buried deep into the other boy's front.

 _"This is an order from your prince, damn you; you will survive… no matter what happens_ …"

Suzaku murmured, tightening the hug, "Yes, my Prince."

 

*

 

"I'm tempted to ask, your Highness..." He addressed the changing room's three-panel door, the sounds of the masquerade slightly muffled from the distance in the candlelit corridor. Suzaku stood facing away, unable to quell the growing grin that made his voice sound amused, "What _was_ the dress for, anyway?"

To answer him straightaway came the thud of an airborne shoe thrown against the door's oval window.

Not alarmed by it, he lifted his back from the wall when the door opened, Lelouch complaining as he passed him in the corridor, "It was punishment."

"Ah…" Suzaku knew he was pushing the limit to Lelouch's temper but couldn't resist the urge to tease him. "In any case, you looked remarkable. The dress was not within my usual tastes, but…"

The sentence stopped dead as they approached the back garden of the castle. Hanging lights glimmered from above them, shaping everything into a warm, earthy glow. Lelouch's own cheeks were warm — whether it was at the previous comment or the fact that the other boy was now gaping at his attire was left unknown. "Your frankness is… _appalling_ sometimes," Lelouch mumbled, slipping on his own glittery-white _Columbina Cordone_ eye mask over his face.

Suzaku — for the lack of a better word to describe it himself — was _awestruck_.

The Britannian prince wore a similar suit to his but a pure, gleaming white under the lights, a black, tucked in cravat, and a red brooch at the center of the neck-fabric. Something about how his ensemble draped to his slender, mannish frame… about how snug it folded to the narrow of his waist… the dress was no match.

The pleasurable feelings in Suzaku's stomach that returned whenever Lelouch was nearby were beginning to overtake his chest and he was finding himself quite breathless and Suzaku wasn't sure what to do about it. He was suddenly terrified of the beautiful, violet-eyed creature in front of him.

"Wow."

Lelouch's expression twisted into a half pout, half sneer.

"Stop making me a fool, Suzaku. I demand it." He said doubtfully, hunching his shoulders together, "What is the matter with you?"

"I don't know." As soon as the breathless words left him, his body moved on its own account. Suzaku's hands found those shoulders and pulled them close to him as his mouth slowly roamed over Lelouch's, planting one small, clumsy kiss after another. Through his half-slit eyelids, Lelouch looked both horrified and amazed to be trapped in Suzaku's arms. At the last, lingering kiss, Lelouch's moistened lips mimicked it back to his mouth. _A familiar rhythm... like running in the marketplace...  
_

"The guards..." The prince whispered with a worried tone, chest heaving, one of his hands tangling to Suzaku's loosened cravat.

"...They're not paying mind to us." Suzaku smiled, for once thankful for the pinching, enchanted slippers on his feet. "...Just trust me."

" _Lelouch_! _Lelouch_!"

The black-haired boy took the opportunity to slip from him, combing his fingers through his mussed hair as a tall, iris-haired woman yelled to him from the inside of the castle. " _Mother calls you! Do not keep her waiting!"_ Lelouch sighed, holding up a hand to signal for a moment of privacy.

She rolled her iris-colored eyes, marching off towards the masquerade's ballroom.

"My spirited older sister." Lelouch asked, his arrogance melting away as he gazed off to avoid Suzaku's expectant stare, "Will you be leaving soon?"

"Not if your Highness permits me to stay in your presence for a little while longer."

" _Please stay_ —" It left him so quickly.

He blushed brightly at the emotion in his voice, more determined than ever to not know how Suzaku must have been looking at him. "..."

Suzaku hid his broadening smile by bowing his head low but could not resist sweeping the feel of it to one of Lelouch's hands as he brought it to his lips. "As you wish, my Prince," he mumbled. "I actually wanted to speak to you about an important matter to this country with you while I still could."

He felt his chin being lifted gently as Lelouch nodded, eyes softening.

"And I you."

 

*

 

It couldn't get more perfect than this.

No matter how hard Suzaku tried, he couldn't get this stupid, giddy grin off of his face as the company in the grand ballroom looked admiringly at their majestic Queen. She looked just like her son. The same shade of purple brilliance. Their features of curved alabaster. Their silky and dark hair.

His stomach started fluttering again at the memory of how the Britannia prince tasted...

"I have exceptional news for our kingdom! If my son and his beloved fiancée could please make their way up here to me..." Lady Marianne opened her arms to the couple. Lelouch's face was entirely devoid of comprehension or satisfaction shared by his audience or of his pleased family and members of his court. His orange-haired bride-to-be however beamed from her perch at the top of the stairs in her elegant, green ballgown.

She turned a radiant pink color underneath the attentions of the cheering nobles and clutched possessively to Lelouch's arm.

Everything began to swim in front of Suzaku's eyes.

The flutters turned into knots.

The clock tower above the thrones chimed midnight.

"It is my honor to announce the weekly matrimonial of my son Lelouch vi Britannia and Lady Shirley Fenette."

 

*


	6. trespassers just want love too

*

**Chapter Six**

*

 

Lelouch did not appreciate the cliffhanger. No. Not at the very least.

He also did not appreciate the current situation he found himself trapped in.

Nor was he willing to appreciate or accept the weight of this warm, accosting, green-ribbon arm trapping him in place on top of the throne-dais. Lelouch tried to jerk away experimentally from it but Lady Shirley's feminine — and astonishingly _vice-like_ grip — wrapped to him proved stronger than he.

It was an absolute nightmare to be put on display in front of these people. The _masked, gluttonous_ faces of his courtly subjects... they, bluebloods, who knew _nothing_ of sacrifices… they, who stared at him like he was an exorbitant prize that was salvaged or a rare oddity to perform tricks for their amusement…

With this old burning of anger tightening in the base of his throat, Lelouch's eyes scanned the sea of masks.

His eyes discovered a tight-lipped Suzaku as he stumbled backwards into the rapt crowd.

As the other boy began to duck out from the ballroom, Lelouch felt himself finally wretch free. His baffled fiancée swayed on her feet from the violent action and shouted, " _Where are you going, my Prince?"_ — he only heard her faintly as Lelouch leaped down the dais to part the murmuring gathering staring after his running form.

The cold, rain-scented air of the evening engulfed his senses— eyes stinging in the wind.

He could barely make out the fluttering, loosened white scarf Suzaku wore around his neck.

" _SUZ_ -!" Lelouch's sentence broke off with a gasp as he lurched forward on the castle's stairs outside. The object that had almost caused his doom glittered brightly with a splatter of raindrops. Lelouch held his draping, black cape over his head with one arm for shelter, reaching down for it.

A... transparent slipper...?

 

*

 

His bare, tanned feet dangled from the edge of the sturdy, striped-bark branch he stretched out on.

Dazedly, Suzaku stared at the open, shattered face of the rhodium pocketwatch clutched in his right hand. For the life of him, he could not remember how it had broken, and it frustrated him greatly. He only knew that it was an item that his Father treasured. And now it passed to be Suzaku's treasure.

His step-family was out for the day; they had since ignored his existence when returning from the ball come early morning and for that, Suzaku was thankful. He himself had gotten back a little after midnight; the spell on his clothes had worn off (the ugly wool material of his everyday wear chaffing his skin; he was missing a cardboard-feel shoe and decided to do away with the one he had still in the yard), and Anya had not commented at his sullen mood but gave him a uncomfortably long stare upon their separation and a light pat on the back before disappearing with the giant, white mecha.

Was he that obvious?

Suzaku felt a grimace crease his mouth as his thoughts sunk back to the ball.

He had been a fool. Lelouch had _other_ matters on his mind. Not the fate of Japan's. Had the engagement been planned beforehand? The young, red-haired woman on Lelouch's arm _had_ been a beauty. Lelouch deserved that much as the valiant and prideful prince…

Would she savor the shape and appley taste of Lelouch's timid, flushing lips? As Suzaku had…?

Something in the boy's stomach twisted painfully and he pushed the memory away.

He instead glanced back to the pocketwatch cradled to his palm, curled underneath his calloused fingers.

The spider-web glass cracklings in watch-face gleamed under the afternoon sunlight—

( _his chest hurt he couldn't catch his breath)—_

Suzaku let out a choked, intense cry at his surroundings. It startled the birds from their nests in the maple tree's branches above, sending them twittering and airborne. The item in Suzaku's _left_ hand — flashing through the air, green and gold and copper brocade — sailed into the lake waters, a good foot away.

He knew... _somehow_... nothing would change.

 

*

 

She met with him alone out by the West garden's gazebo. Their parents were in the foyer. She knew it was against her parent's rules to be wandering unescorted. _But_ …

Euphemia colored to rival her famously long curls as he bowed to kiss her knuckles, one-by-one.

"S-Sir Waldstein?"

Kanon smiled honey-sweet, _fakely_ at her modesty.

"My delightful fiancée, is it improper to greet you in such a way? Do you fear to be seen with prying and shameless eyes with this lowly man?"

She pressed her hand to the tops of her bosom, under the low cut of her white-and-lavender dress _(what a pleasant, high bosom it was... he thought)_ and smiled back amiably at his powder-blue eyes. "Oh, never! Please do not think of yourself that way, ever. I am thrilled to see you on this day!" Euphemia said, leaning to him and tilting her right cheek for him to kiss.

Kanon, however, had another route in mind. She squeaked loudly, her face flaming in shock when his face pushed against the moldings of her breasts. "Ah, what an attractive scent you have…" His heavy breath moistened her exposed, white skin. She felt the tip of something wet crease the seam of her breasts. "When we are to be married you must wear this oil more often…"

"You are aware that you are under surveillance, are you not?" a voice interrupted.

The princess's heart jolted in relief and humiliation as her younger brother and the guards behind him gazed purposefully at the couple from the outside entrance of the gazebo. Kanon chuckled, straightening up and brushing his strands of turkish-rose hair from his eyes, swinging his varnished walking cane in a cheerful circle as he surveyed the assembly.

"You are being summoned by your guardian," said Lelouch, motioning to the guards to come closer. "They will accompany you to the Bailey."

"And you went out of your way to oversee this? You are too kind, yourHighness ." Kanon bowed his head, smiling widely as he walked over to the entrance. Lelouch flinched back a little when the thin, noble man not-so-shyly patted Lelouch's hip with his hand. " _You_ … and your dear sister."

 

*

 

"Where are you going?"

"To report this to Cornelia." Lelouch saw the panic in her lavender eyes and shook his head. It had only been a couple minutes since the Waldstein heir had returned inside the Britannian Royal Castle. "You cannot expect me to ignore the truth that he sought to sully your reputation in front of my eyes."

When Euphemia's hands began to twist together, he came forward to hold them tightly.

"I will not watch you be made a victim, Euphy," Lelouch whispered, his hooded eyes darkening.

 

*

 

Cornelia turned out to be in another part of the grounds — the Place of Arms, where the rest of the Royal Knights ( _Knightmares,_ the people whispered _)_ were training for combat — but Lelouch discovered this later. He accidentally walked into the range of a conversation between his parents and the Waldsteins.

"…And where exactly is your manor located?"

Lelouch stopped mid-stride, hearing his father's voice through the stained glass windowpane between the Bailey and the foyer.

"The countryside. The fresh air does my sons well." The man who answered sounded like he had lungs tarred by smoke. Lelouch's insides cringed at the sound.

"Oh, how quaint," his mother laughed airily, bell-like. "I prefer the countryside myself."

"So, there are not many neighboring manors around your property, Charles?"

"We—"

"Do you have any Eleven servants?" came a new voice from the room; a cruel, growl of a voice Lelouch thought he heard once before.

"A few of them are, yes…" Lelouch's father said, trailing off and politely confused.

"Savage beasts, aren't they, your Majesty? We keep one as a servant at our manor. He's a troublemaker," the voice growled, pleased. "He killed his own Father in cold blood, as if it was nothing—!" There came a smack of varnished wood against bone and the voice cut off, whining angrily at the contact.

"My youngest forgets to mention that the child had no home, and as the merciful Master of my household, I could not leave him to starve in the streets. We had considered sending him off to the army if we did not desire the extra set of hands… Even if he is somewhat bothersome and of dirty blood… he became proficient in housekeeping and in cooking in a matter of a year or so. I would sometimes like to think of the ill boy as a stepson." An gruff _,_ _forced_ emotional sniff.

Lelouch's mother made an understandable _hmmm_.

"A reasonable decision to make considering the circumstances… now, please, tell us more about the countryside?"

The Britannian price pushed himself away from the stained glass window slowly, numbly.

It couldn't...

 

*

 

Suzaku murmured to the spotted mare that whinnied softly to him, "Easy girl." She still struggled against her reins.

He tied them to a knob near the stable door, petting her neck consolingly. She was easily frightened by other loud noises, such as the other horses when in a gallop. His stepfather wanted to sell her off as fast as he could, until then, she was forced to remain in the stables.

Though being nearly trampled to death by her fits, Suzaku understood her grumpy nature. He hated being trapped as well.

The galloping returned but Suzaku knew it was not the horses he was in charge of. They were in a different field from this one on the grounds.

The mare reared her head back, screaming.

He raced out of the single stable to meet the trespasser face-to-face in the sunset field, breathing hard. In the process, he lost his straw hat from his short, curled brown hair. The small rider (now that he got a good look) was on a black stallion, and covered up by a long, dark cloak and hood. They jumped from the saddle to hug him around the waist before he could react properly to the intrusion of his personal space. He never had an trespasser _hug_ him first before attacking.

" _OH!_ It is you, my dearest cousin! I _KNEW_ I would find you!"

The rider pulled off her whipping cloak, a swirl of jet-black ponytail piled elegantly and plaited to the back of her head, and her eyes…

( _her eyes they were his eyes the color of the forests and the mountains they would play in)_

"Taizo and Tohdoh said you wouldn't remember me, but they don't know what they are talking about!"

She paused, examining him, her infectious smile rising. "You do remember me, don't you? I know it's been a long time since we've seen each other. Your father was my mother's older brother after all. Do you remember the Kyoto Shrine? Oh, you have to remember that at least, Suzaku!"

"I…don't…-" He thrust his hands out, to push her away, a migraine thudding behind his eyes and temples. "I… don't know what you are saying. You are mistaken."

( _her eyes they)_

Her emerald-colored eyes glimmered hurt. "Suzaku…you…?"

( _his head flared)_

"Ka…don't…cry—"

His throat closed up. And the world went black.

 

*


	7. yes, that WAS a bad judgement call

*

**Chapter Seven**

*

 

_"It does not concern you, my Lady…"_

Moments before this was stated to her in a bitter manner, pulling away _again_ from her sympathetic reach (and he gazed at her with such contempt), Lady Shirley Fenette sat primly with the acclaimed "Prince Charming" of Britannia in the great chamber, fussing silently as he stared off into space and rotated what looked like a transparent slipper between his hands.

"That will do, Nina," the redhead said, flashing the maid a brilliant, pretend smile and clapping her freckled hands together to signal her leave. The bespectacled girl flushed tomato red and scuttled out, slamming the door behind her accidentally. The noise startled Lelouch back to his tapestried-surroundings.

"Does something trouble you, my Prince—?"

"—Lelouch is fine." He interrupted her.

At the inquisitive look, Lelouch mumbled, delicate fingers spayed on the crystal object in his hands, "You are permitted to speak informally to me as my fiancée, correct?" When he smiled afterwards, it was the smile she had given Nina. Like she was beneath him in intelligence. Like she was a small child to be lorded over.

Against her better instincts and decorum, she asked rather loudly, eyeing the slipper with slight distrust, "That is a curious item. What is it? Some glass slipper?"

"Acrylic, actually." He missed her raised eyebrow at how he sounded so sure. "I must find its wearer."

"For what reason?"

" _It does not concern you, my Lady…"_

Those venomous words. Those troubling words. Who could have put him in such a sour mood?

Moments later, she would come to a definitive resolve, and spirit herself into the candlelit great chamber unnoticed.

 

 *

 

Size eleven and extra wide.

 _…WHO_ was the shoe's owner?

 

 *

 

Suzaku Kuruugi fainted. No. Scratch that. Suzaku Kuruugi _swooned_ like a fairytale princess.

Luckily— _to his pride_ — the people who caught him did not press the topic with him as he awoke. Awoke to his uncle's bed. He knew it was for the _smell_ on the expensive, soft sheets— dark and leathery and stale cigar smoke lingering unpleasantly— and to the fact that he did not own a bed. Suzaku awoke every morning in a location that depended on what chore he had finished the earlier evening—the pasture, or the stables, but mostly it was in the ashes near the kitchen fireplace.

The girl… ( _Kaguya, his consciousness murmurs warmly… my…...)_ fretfully backed away, calling to someone out of view as Suzaku sat up, lifting a hand to his forehead. Another man with champagne-gray hair and eyes—in what looked like drab and antiqued military attire— appeared to stand beside her.

"Have you been eating?" The Japanese man asked him gruffly. Suzaku blinked, green eyes still clouded.

"…Eating?"

A deep frown rested over the man's features. "I guess that answers my question."

Just when the brown-haired boy would protest that he ate… maybe not a lot but he _did_ … the girl beat him to speaking next, her emerald green eyes lighting up, "I told you he was here, Tohdoh!" She was immediately shushed by the severe-looking man. Her shoulders fell at the reprimanding.

"Why were you looking for me?"

"Because we are family, Suzaku," she insisted, her chest heaving underneath her riding cloak. "Because you are the only one now who—!"

" _KAGUYA_! _Restrain yourself_!" Tohdoh cut in scolding, feathery eyebrows bristling.

The young girl snapped back, "Come off it! You and rest of the Liberation Front are hoping for the same!" Suzaku winced as the argument continued, clearing his throat to draw their attention.

"…Are you both related to me?"

"Tohdoh isn't, but he's your godfather so he's pretty much family." Kaguya smiled cheekily. "Ever wonder why you fought so well? He trained you since you were little. I remember you being able to roundhouse kick the head off the straw puppet we nailed together in the settlement. Can you still do that?"

"Why didn't I come to live with you?" It had almost came out accusatory and Suzaku could not help feeling it in the base of his throat as it clenched his Adam's apple.

"Because…" She threw a dirty glare over his shoulder at the portrait of a lavishly-dressed and partially-sneering Charles. "Because _they_ got you first. And between the confusion of the beginning war and everyone getting injured so fast… no one really knew until it was too late."

"And you are my cousin, Kaguya?"

As he spoke her name carefully, familiarly, she squealed and hugged him around the shoulders. " _You do remember me_!"

Suzaku laughed, wrapping his arms around her to return the feel. "Yes…! We were at the shrine… and the rain storm on Kyoto Mountain happened… and when we came home… Father was so angry…" He paused, stiffening at the memory. Kaguya withdrew from his space, watching as liveliness in his tanned face waned.

His stomach then growled fiercely.

She hid a newly-formed smirk behind her hand as Suzaku turned red with embarrassment and Tohdoh rolled his eyes. The older man clapped the boy's shoulder, widening green eyes at the considerate motion, "Eat first and then we'll discuss why Kaguya broke the rules to come here in the first place…"

 

*

 

It was not the smartest decision she could have made that day.

Stealing an item that was not hers by right, and straying unaccompanied in the commoner's town where her misanthrope of a Mother warned her held the most dangerous of characters.

But Shirley had to start _SOMEWHERE_ on the mystery of the shoe owner...

"Oi, where are you going?" A bearded Japanese man from a small group of his friends outside a local tavern called to her, wiggling his fingers. She ignored him but clutched her fur cloak and suede-satchel to herself more possessively. His muscular arm snaked out, wrenching her and jerked her arm painfully back. "Are you deaf? I said where are you going, little Britannian?"

At her persistent struggling, he clenched her arm harder to prevent her from by any means of escape. Another taller, fatter man from the group presented her other arm forward to the rest, "Look here, gentlemen. She's a rich one. Aren't these pretty jewels? I'd sure like to borrow them from her. She wouldn't mind, would she?"

As he started to forcefully slip the ruby and sapphire–decorated silver rings from her trembling hand, Shirley screamed piercingly, " _No! My Father's ring! Please_ —!"

The first Japanese man grinned ferociously, silencing her with his hand, "Oh, I think you've gone and upset her. I apologize dearly for my friend's behavior. Why don't I make it up to you, little Britannian? I promise to make it worth your while…" He moved in, inches from her face, leering.

As this happened, she realized that the market goers—Britannian and Japanese alike— knew perfectly well what was happening to her. They just wanted nothing to do with it. And averted their eyes.

…her Mother had been right... and there would be no hero to come and save her like in her childhood picture books...

_Or..._

"I think you've done enough to scare her."

Her round, olive green eyes concentrated on the speaker of the newer voice. A raggedy-looking Japanese boy. He cradled a bulging brown bag of food under one of his arms and casually stood off to the side of the rowdy, drunken men. The boy said again, his expression eerily blank, "You've made your point. Please let her go."

"Oh, _a brave traitor_. Do you think you stand a better chance sleeping with her then us?"

"Let her go and I'll let you all walk away from this unharmed."

They laughed at him and his monotonous threat like he was a trivial insect, one of them waving him off exaggeratedly. Shirley begged, tears welling, as the hand on her mouth limped, "Please… have mercy on me, sir…" She cried out again, thrashing as the bearded man shook her entire body, rage screwing up his tanned face.

"Look at the number of graves of our people that you Britannians have slaughtered— _and then talk to me about MERCY_!"

Shirley flinched as his fist swung. It never made contact as the boy ducked into the fight, twisting it away from her and breaking bone as the man's wrist snapped nastily at the inflicted momentum. " _Move_! _Now_!" Suzaku roared at her as she lifted her skirts with a terrified but determined look and charged past the rest of the men without hesitating, disappearing into the east rear of the market. He followed soon after, leaving the drunks to stagger helplessly with several bruises and two or three cracked bones, and a few outside fans of the brawl who called back to him adoringly.

Suzaku found her— her orangish-red hair flyaway from her high bun, panting, wiping sweat from her brow— under an broken, tented cart.

"Have they hurt you, my Lady?" He asked, still cradling his undamaged bag.

For the second time that day, his personal space was invaded promptly by a strange, gleeful girl. "You saved me! Thank you!" Shirley spotted her rings in his palm and then hugged him once again tightly, repeating her thanks over and over.

"As long as you are... safe..." He noticed her then observing his feet, not bothering hiding her show of it. "...is something wrong...?"

"This may seem like an odd sort of question, but please indulge me… " She shuffled through her satchel, fishing for something in a hurry, and presented to him a large, transparent slipper he knew all-too-painfully... that the sight of it made his feet ached in remembrance. "I am on a journey to find the wearer of this slipper. This may seem silly, but... would you mind trying on this on for me?"

Emerald green eyes met to her magnetic, olive pull.

Before they could move forward, or he could respond, there came a shout of " _There she is!"_ and the feel of a double barrel of a handgun pointing between Suzaku's eyes. He heard her speak panicked: " _Don't hurt him! Guards, he hasn't done anything!"_ but no more than that. Something turned off in his head— and a difference scene was placed before his eyes. Not a Knightmare before him. Not this abandoned, rear section of the marketplace he stood in. But the same feeling of helplessness ( _as a leering, heavier gun was pressed against him, by fat, bejeweled fingers_ )—

Suzaku came back to reality to lash out. The armored man with the gun fought back, instead shoving the barrels to Suzaku's left side of his chest and pulling the trigger.

Everything seemed to freeze, breathless. And then the screaming returned, wordless, higher than before as the grim-faced Knightmares forcibly escorted hysterical Shirley from the tented area.

He knew this familiar hurt in his chest ( _like last time..?_ ).

Suzaku felt himself dazedly sinking to his haunches into graying ground and then lower, the back of his hair sliding up the wall. Shakily, he reached for his Father's watch from the inside pocket of his jacket. Two smoking bullets laid lodged between the spiderweb glass crackings smeared lightly with globe-drops of blood.

He just needed... some rest. Just a little... to catch his breath back.

 

*


	8. how many times have you been shot?

*

**Chapter Eight**

*

 

There was reason to feel thoroughly annoyed.

Yes, Diethard accepted the new African masks from overseas (quite a challenging feat, after all, bargaining with the representatives of the _Baule_ farmers from the Ivory Coast), but in turn to Lelouch's bountiful additions, the older man was — for some reason — refusing to meet his eyes during the shop's exchange.

It did not gladden Lelouch's heart at all when reminded of his earlier capture by the Royal Knights.

He made a mental note of Diethard's behavior as a small commotion nearby attracted his attention as he stepped out. A Britannian woman being dragged along by the Royal Knights _("Knightmares"—_ a much younger Euphemia clung to him, exhaling with a terror-filled breath into his ear canal).

Grayish-black streaks from the woman's coal-dark eye makeup slipped freely down her freckled cheeks.

"Shirley…?" Lelouch murmured to himself doubtful, before breaking out into a full sprint, abandoning his tattered, hooded concealing robes obscuring his view of her.

Two of the Knightmares from the group (the ones restraining her) came to a complete stop to bow to him in the cobblestone street, their pale faces stolid as their prince accused, "What have you done to her? Explain yourselves now!" Lelouch motioned for them to let her go, and surprisingly, they obeyed.

She immediately clasped to him like a sobbing, rescued child.

" _That poor boy_ … oh, it is all my fault! Please, please go see if he is okay, Lelouch!"

His eyes followed the length of her trembling, ivory-delicate finger towards the semi-dark parting of an almost… _familiar_ alleyway in the marketplace. A pocket of dread rose up in the middle of his chest cavity, pinching his insides, as he left her and peered into the alley's entrance.

A semi-conscious boy sat against a brick wall. A woman with long, pale green hair stood in front of him, bending her face towards him and peeling an bruised-looking orange in her hands. "Feeling better now that you've napped?" She inquired, offering him the whole orange, "What is with you, anyway, and being unconscious in strange alleyways? I can't say I am seeing the merit in repeatedly using this same plot device to build the fairytale's drama—" _(She was effectively silenced by unnamed forces, and from nowhere particular, a disembodied voice chuckled evilly.)_

When the boy mumbled, bringing back significance to the current scene stretched out in front of everyone, Lelouch painfully recognized that good-natured voice.

He moved forward, " _Suzaku_!" and stripped off his leather gloves to go to his knees to him, seizing his face. The perspiring, brown-haired boy groaned sleepily at the feel, and Lelouch ran the sides of his bare thumbs along his tan cheeks in comforting circles, "Suzaku, look at me. Don't go to sleep. Come on. Where are you hurt?"

Suzaku flinched as the other boy checked him over, hands now drifting over his shirt.

"No, d-don't. It's still tender…" He breathed, half-smiling, "…I hope she's okay… that noblegirl. She's important to y-you."

"She doesn't matter right now." Lelouch dismissed, still examining him over, "She's fine— They _shot_ you…!"

The rhodium pocket watch in Suzaku's lap gleamed with his blood as he spoke to it matter-of-factly, "…protected me a second time." Lelouch glanced down at it.

"You've been shot in the chest _before_?"

Suzaku's smile remained unfocused.

"That's w-where the details get fuzzy, Lulu… have you ever been shot? I finally remembered h-how much it hurt…"

"You've stopped making sense, Suzaku," Lelouch shook his head disapprovingly, worried, easing the fallen, aching boy to his own feet. "We have to get you out of here. Miss, could you—?" He turned to the green-haired woman only to find the space where she had been lingering in abandoned.

"She does that," the dazed, bleeding boy answered Lelouch's dumbfounded look. "…She's like a ninja."

 

*

 

A passerby was generously bribed for two horses, _very generously considering how speedily his patrons required them,_ and the trio rode to the Waldestein estate a short distance away (Lady Shirley alone on the speckled horse, Suzaku clinging weakly to Lelouch on the other onyx-black).

"They are so lovely," the noble girl observed appreciatively the purplish red gardenias by the front door, descending atop from her saddle.

"…Mom planted them. She said she always wanted to take care of a garden." Suzaku's eyebrows creased confused as his hand rose sluggishly to his head.

" _…why would have Mom planted them here_?"

"Suzaku?"

" _I'm fine_ ," he answered Lelouch, lowering his hand and climbing off their horse. "Really."

"Isn't this your stepfather's manor—?"

A gunshot went off inside followed by broken glasses and a girlish scream of terror.

Suzaku wretched from Lelouch's support on his side, heading around the back of the gates towards the noises. He barely heard Lelouch ordering his fiancée to hide as he pursued the other boy. Outside the back entrance of the manor's kitchen, Lelouch caught him, tugging him away from charging in recklessly.

Normally, the Britannian prince would have never had the brute force, but for the wounded hero of our story, he was more than enough of a match for Suzaku. When the struggling boy opened his mouth, Lelouch clapped his hand over his mouth and pressed their backs to a space underneath a window.

"You made me do it…" Bradley's voice drifted from outside the kitchen window, _shaky, uneasy_. "You made me do it, you filthy Eleven. You should have done what I said."

What sounded like an enraged Kaguya came after.

"Why? Why did you people do this to us? Why to Suzaku? _Why_ did you kill my uncle, you _Britannian bastard_?

"Not me. I didn't get to do it. Who cares about high and mighty Eleven scum? That's all he ever was. Some stupid Eleven who got way in too fucking deep. Cinder- _idiot_ is gonna end up the same, just like his Daddy…" Bradley's heavy footsteps faded a little from the window. "I only hope I get to do it…"

"You are a _monster_ —" A loud thump. A pained cry. Suzaku didn't need to see through the kitchen window to know his stepbrother had kicked his cousin to the ground. Bradley's voice strengthened with resolve, "I'll deal with you later. Both of you. Don't think I won't. Now get moving."

Lelouch peered quickly through the window as different pairs of footsteps echoed. "…A girl and an injured man are being led down the cellar. They're both Japanese."

"I have to help them."

"He's locked the cellar door."

He gritted his teeth when Suzaku lurched forward suddenly, straining in the encirclement of skinny, protective arms.

"He knows who killed my Father! Let go of me! I have to stop him!"

"Are you dense? You can't just go in there. He'll shoot you on sight." Lelouch hissed in his ear, trying to hush him, "We'll get them out alive, I promise you this. You are too weak to fight right now."

" _But I didn't kill him_!" The whites of Suzaku's eyes grew bigger as he spoke, as his body shook more agitated in Lelouch's tiring arms, " _I thought I killed my Father and I didn't…—!_ "

"—You swore to me that you would survive, Suzaku Kuruugi!"

He froze, meeting darkened, hooded eyes. Lelouch added with a harsher, stung whisper, "You would go back on your word to me?"

"…... _No_. No, I never would."

"Then make me believe your promise."

Lelouch let out a ragged breath between his lips, releasing the calming boy. "For now, we find you a safe location until we can receive further help," he said.

"Can I be of service to you?"

Lady Shirley appeared from around the edge of the manor, smiling meekly at them.

"Please, if you allow me the honor, you would be welcomed to my Mother's villa…"

 

*

 

He would never get use to these fancy beds. Suzaku winced, batting away the sheer, mosquito-canopy bed curtains that moved closer to him as he shifted himself carefully on the plush mattress. And the room was _freezing_ … without his tunic, he could see the tanned skin on his chest and stomach rise up and dimple.

The guest bedroom door knocked before a red-haired male servant emerged; trailing after him, the Lady Shirley.

"How are you feeling?" she asked cheerfully, folding her laced-gloved hands together.

He returned the cheerful nature in his… semi-forced smile. "Better with the bandages, thanks."

The boy pretended to pat the clean cloth that wrapped him firmly from his torso to his shoulders.

The servant gently set a polished, brass tray of an assortment of meats into Suzaku's lap before bowing to him (Suzaku muttered uncomfortably a ' _thank you_ ' — which the other man did not take kindly to heart as his eyes glared at the boy's lack of societal expectations) and then bowed to his mistress who made a shooing motion with her hands.

"You may see your way out now..." The servant raised a fine eyebrow at this — the noble Britannian girl alone in a bedroom with a shirtless Japanese male — and she insisted further, clapping her hands together this time as if summoning the idle awareness of a pet, "Come, come, now, you may wait outside if you wish. I will only be a moment." He gave them a last critical look before exiting.

Suzaku warily eyed his tray.

"You must be famished from all of this excitement." She caught the look. "Oh, _please_ , it is not poisoned. This is the least I can do for you after you have saved my life." The orange-haired girl mothered him, walking over, and her olive-colored eyes unwavering from him until he took a tentative bite.

"The servants worry for me constantly, as you have already seen. I fear my Mother had a part in this clever and devious plan." She chuckled at her own joke, picking absently at an orange, soft spiral of hair as she added seriously, "After Father died, she wished to shield me from everything that wasn't familiar to her."

"I'm very sorry..." Her bottom lip trembled slightly at the sincerity in his voice.

"It feels like something is fading out of your life… doesn't it?" Suzaku set down his half-eaten slice of toast, staring back at her as her shoulders concealed by her spring green dress gave an undeniable tremor, "Even now, something that should have been dearer to you than it is continues to fade," he added.

With a small sniff, she collected herself and smiled broadly. "I believe... we were interrupted last time we were having a conversation, but since I have you here with me…" Lady Shirley went into a familiar-looking satchel and cradled his pointy, opaque slipper in both of her hands. "…Do you mind trying this on?"

He took the outstretched slipper silently, compliantly, and gingerly bent down to slip it on with one hand. Once it fit perfectly, it shone a glaringly blonde color around Suzaku's encased foot, before exploding into a thin cloud of sparkling green confetti. The girl waved the remnants of it from her airspace, coughing, _wide-eyed, amazed_.

"You _are_ the shoe's wearer. I have finally found you."

"Um, miss, why would you have…?"

She wrinkled her nose displeased at the title he used to address her.

" _Please_ , if you will… you are permitted to call me 'Shirley'… I've ordered the servants away for such…—"

"—It would not feel appropriate, considering we are competing for the same attentions of one person," Suzaku said grimly, watching her freckled face tighten, the weight of the truth sinking in.

"Oh… _Oh_ , I see." Lady Shirley clasped her hands in front of her bosom, her knuckles whitening, before separating them and retrieved the now empty tray from Suzaku's knees. "So it is to be like this then…" When her back reached the bedroom doorway, she spun at the heel to him, grinning pleasantly, "I have confidence that my prince will chose what is best for him. Don't you think so?"

Sensing no ill will from her gesture — _wonders upon wonders that day_ — he grinned back silently.

…Perhaps it would not be _so_ terrible to lose to her…

That fleeting thought was purged immediately when Lelouch made his presence known from the corridor, arguing noisily with the ill-tempered servant who resided to glaring at everyone in the room out of a useless and unchangeable annoyance. The Britannian prince managed to shove both his fiancée and the other man out, shutting the bedroom door of them behind him.

When Suzaku tested his left side out, attempting to put his tunic sleeves on, he gasped soundlessly at sharp pain.

Lelouch frowned troubled. "You aren't any better then?" he pointed out.

"It was only a scrape. I'm sure." Suzaku laughed, not sure if he was reassuring _himself_ or not, and cradled his arm closer to his side. "Do not trouble your thoughts on my account, your Highness."

"Don't not claim ignorance, Suzaku, you know very well my name is _Lelouch_."

Violet eyes rolled peeved as Lelouch joined him on the mattress, an abnormally gentle look on him as he assisted in pulling Suzaku's patched-up tunic on, and moved the open, ragged shirt aside to stare at the bandages, "It hasn't bled through yet. That's good."

His hand remained sprayed over the middle of Suzaku's chest, feather-light, _but there_.

Something from the warmth of that touch made Suzaku's chest flutter familiarly, excruciatingly lucid _._

Of course…

Suzaku acknowledged, "So, I guess if we're caught again, the enchanted slippers won't work since they don't exist anymore." The other boy just looked up from his observation of the bandages to gawk as if he had grown another identical head on his shoulders.

"Wh… _what_ are you going on about—?" An eager mouth attached to his, fleshy and wet and wondrously heated; _Suzaku's mouth_ , kissing the curved space above his top lip and then pressing deliriously to the bottom. The bandaged boy scooted closer to him, nudging their knees together, coiling the fingers in his right hand into Lelouch's hair.

…it was a _lie_. An elephantine and deceitful lie. _Of course_.

Suzaku knew he would never give up the effort for Lelouch's heart that easily. He knew that as soon as Lelouch reappeared in the doorway.

His chances may have been dismal, laughable even. But they were absolutely _worth it_.

When his teeth gently nipped Lelouch's numbing lip, the other boy fell back out of their shared airspace, flushing, bright-eyed with the remnants of carnal hunger, moaning slightly under the fingers fondling his scalp. Despite his own flush, Suzaku folded away that slip of important information for a later date.

He held a firm kiss to the inside of Lelouch's wrist. "The Lady Fenette is lucky to have you."

Lelouch tugged away, decidedly looking frustrated at the statement.

"I'm an embarrassment to my family, you know. Not agreeing with the terms of the traditional betrothal my siblings and I are set to follow… sneaking out when it is forbidden to leave the castle… lying… cheating… gambling in my spare time… working in illegal operations overseas… acquiring strange friends…"

For a moment, the Britannian prince simpered at Suzaku and he did not react to it. "I break every rule that you can imagine a prince would have on his head. I sometimes think my King and my Lady Mother wished that Cornelia was the male heir to Britannia's throne..."

"Without those things, you wouldn't be you, Lelouch." Suzaku's emerald eyes shone strikingly. "Let me ask you: What do you know about the shrines?"

"…There are a number of them in the mountains, yes?"

"Do you know why they exist though?" He took Lelouch's silence as saying _very little_.

"They were built on the land for the purposes of reverance. We come there to pray to them or to receive good fortune. I know I may still find difficulty in remembering my past. But I do remember, one time, I had disobeyed my family's duties. I entered one of our most sacred inner shrines, where even the slightest bit of outside dirt would disrupt its nature. For a runaway toy. I was only two. I had removed my muddy shoes and socks but I still managed to get a streak of filth on the floorboards. No one in my family or the clans but my Mother treated me well after it.

"She believed in the sacred upholding of our shrines, but she also knew I meant no harm as a child. She encouraged independent behavior from me afterwords... but more so in the ways of being cautious of other people's feelings so they aren't hurt.

"You go against your teachings and the rules, Lelouch, but you aren't a bad person because of it."

A smile crept up the Japanese boy's face as Lelouch smiled back warily.

"You weren't to begin with."

 

*


	9. does this smell like chloroform to you?

*

**Chapter Nine**

*

 

 _"Wait for me here…"_ was the last thing he said to Suzaku before taking off for the Britannian Royal Castle.

It had taken him nearly a quarter of the burning day to reach his destination.

The guards at the front gates gave each other disbelieving looks (… _How… in the good name of their beloved King… did he manage to escape the grounds AGAIN?...!)_ and considered their resignation as Lelouch descended from his saddle, begrimed and tattered cloak like a ripple of filth behind him.

He patiently handed the reins to onyx-dark horse to a stableman running up to him. Leouch continued to ignore the also baffled interior-gate guards who uncrossed their bayonets to allow him entrance through the mile-high castle doors.

From the South chapel, one of his sisters poked her head out at the sounds of steel-toed boots approaching in the corridor of the great hall.

"You—!" Cardine screeched with enough force to rattle her own gigantic, gold-hoop earrings on her person, "— _are in so much trouble when I inform Mother you've been out_ _of the castle_!" She rushed after him, dogging, sneering along the way at him. "I know you have been out. I can tell. I'm not stupid."

The little red-haired girl let out a high-strung shriek, yanking unkindly on his cloak with her embroidered, sangria silk gloves until it crumbled to the floor.

They continued past the Southern storeroom and casemate.

" _Eeeew_! This is so _disgusting_! What have you been rolling around in? Shit?" Cardine said, gleefully repulsed, "Mother and Father will just _die_ —!"

Lelouch spun on the spot, waiting for her to collide into his side.

When she did, he twisted her thin, bangled wrist — not hard enough to hurt her, but with enough momentum to indicate that he meant business — and seethed with livid eyes, "Do you ever… _SHUT UP_ … you stupid brat? Why can't you be _half_ the good person Nunnally was?"

With a gob smacked expression, she stumbled when he returned her wrist to her roughly and continued huffing down the tapestry corridor, grappling with outraged tears in her lavender eyes.

 

*

 

Lelouch was received immediately to the throne room, sending dirty looks to the throne guards until they settled to retiring outside with grumpy, beaten expressions.

His Mother — adorned in Persian blue _andrienne_ dress — sat primly in her plush throne overlooking him.

She tapped her long, apple red-painted fingernails against the side of the handrest.

As he bowed his head to her, she asked with what could have been a rehearsed tone, "I am pleased to see your cordial greeting, my son. Did you hear the news from your oldest sister Guinevere?"

"I'm afraid I haven't."

"Her betrothal has been successful overseas," King Jeremiah resumed the news, smiling gently. "For this, I feel our family and our nation are quite blessed."

Lelouch did not raise his head.

"And who was the poor fool to agree to it?" Though he could not see it, his Mother's black, slender eyebrow hovered upwards at his blunt, mocking statement.

She said, halting her tapping fingers, and leaned forward in her seat to examine him, "Such a phrase to use for a new family member… if you had been present at her departure, you would have known it was Li Xingke. The symbolic head of the Chinese Federation. We have a guarantee of friendship with our old traders, thanks to this arrangement."

"There's no guarantee that he won't die soon after being inflicted with madness, with her useless prattling about Christianity being the superior religion to all..." He muttered aloud, rolling his violet-colored eyes, disgusted at the reminiscence of his oafish-and-raving-in-nature sibling.

As opposed to her husband being who was outwardly disapproving of their son's verbal behavior, Marianne bared her teeth at Lelouch in a snarl of a smile.

"And what sort of scandal will you be spreading about your darling Euphemia after she is wed?"

Lelouch's voice rose, head leveling up to stare furiously, "It _certainly_ is a disappointment that I am not a daughter and therefore a proper bargaining chip…!"

"It is."

At those two words, two _very calmly_ spoken words flooding cold through his bloodstream, the Britannian prince broke out into in a dash for his only exit, crashing into a moving guard who glared at him before realizing his facial slip up and corrected it.

As her husband followed him, Marianne bit her upper lip crestfallen, casting her eyes to the throne floor.

" _Leave me be_!" Lelouch cried out, stung, as his esteemed Father caught his flailing arm outside. "The both of you tyrants! I can't stand it!"

" _YOU DARE SPEAK TO YOUR KING IN THAT MANNER_!" Jeremiah proclaimed boomingly, his orange eyes sharp on the quieting boy. He took a long breath in, trying to soften his features, "…You are more riled than usual. If there is something wrong, I would trust that you would tell me, Lelouch. You must understand… your Mother and I are striving to secure a peaceful future for you and your sisters."

"Peaceful?" His son shook his head at him, mistrustful and shocked at his ignorance. "You strip the resources and homes of the Japanese people and call that _peace_?"

"We are working on _treaties_ with these people…"

"Treaties do not mean anything! What about the land? The shrines? The culture these people built? How do you compensate for that, Father?"

King Jeremiah blinked, amazed by the righteous vigor he was witnessing from him.

"… _what has gotten into you all of a sudden_?"

Lelouch jerked free from his Father's loosened grip.

This was pointless. How could the crowned head of this country possible understand?

He _had_ to find a way to aid Suzaku.

Through the buttery, Lelouch decided to change his route to the Place of Arms, where he knew Cornelia and possibly her troops would be. Maybe they could hold off Bradley Waldestein long enough to retrieve Suzaku's friends… yes… at least that much he could do now...

His hurried, desperate thoughts were disconnected by the violent budge of his body being forcibly slammed into the stone-keep wall of the corridor, exploding into a splitting white agony forming at the base of his forehead where it impacted the wall first. A squint of a human-shaped, turkish-rose colored blob was all he allowed his eyes before shutting them, his hands frantically clawing into the funny-smelling handkerchief pressed to suffocate his nostrils and open, gasping mouth.

And then, those hands fell still at his sides.

 

*

 

" _Please wait for me here…" The boy with beautiful, violet eyes said to him, shrugging on his disguising cloak. Boldly, he encased Suzaku's hand with his own and squeezed reassuringly, "I will seek help for us…"_

But for how long…

...Lelouch…?

From the parlor window of the guest bedchamber in Lady Shirley's villa, Suzaku curled one leg to the sill he found himself in. His bandages held up nicely with maneuvering underneath his semi-open collar shirt. He wasn't terribly worried about his injuries now that the rapidly heating pain had lessened in his side.

At least there was not going to be an infection.

"What the…?" He murmured, as a small finger made its presence known on the first floor window, rapping pointedly. Attached to the finger jumped up a view of a familiar, small girl with cotton-candy pigtails. Suzaku backed away, alarmed, as she rapped again and gestured for him to follow her out with a bored expression.

Several questions clouded him. But mainly this… _why was she, head to foot, in a duckling costume_?

Nevertheless, he located the latch to the parlor window, and followed her into the remote edge of the patch of woods on the Fenette grounds. Anya stopped by some brush and motioned clicking her heels three times, and then stared pointedly at him.

After a moment, he did so slowly and reluctantly, knowing where all of this was ( _unfortunately_ ) leading up to.

And there it was, the green sparkles and turbofetti shaped like obscenely yellow sunflowers.

" _Oooh_ , for the _love_ of L. Frank Baum—!"

A floating Gino cursed, dropping a rolled up hedgehog from his left hand and a particularly dizzy-looking pink flamingo on the carpet of grass."I was _THIS CLOSE_ to winning the match!" He scolded Anya who tilted her head sideways, his blond wings fluttering agitatedly in midair, "Do you _mind_ , you silly girl? I mean really…!"

"…were you using that flamingo as a croquet mallet?" she asked blankly.

"As a matter of fact, I wa—" The blond man hesitated, lowering his lifted index finger, and gawking at the ugly gray feathers of her costume.

"…"

"..."

"..."

"… _do I even want to know_?" She shook her head at his question. "Right then," Gino said promptly, turning towards Suzaku and giving him a chipper smile. "Oh... Hello again." The fairy man slipped his hand into his flamboyant bodice with ridged sleeves and presented Suzaku the eye mask he had thrown into the lake. "You lost this."

The boy did not reach for it.

"So," the other man cleared his throat uneasily. "How was that fancy ball of yours? Was it _fabuu~ulous_ —I assume it was based on the dress code. Did you manage to woo the prince of your dreams like I said you would?"

"What do you want?" Suzaku asked dully, as Gino's happy expression faltered.

"To help you. That's all I want. That's all I can do as your fairy godmother," The blond man encouraged mildly. "I heard from a certain green acquaintance of mine that your prince has himself in some trouble when he left. I've enchanted this mask to be like the slippers. You can only use it one time to remain invisible to everyone, so make it count."

Cautiously, Suzaku took it from him as he added, earnest, "You are this story's protagonist. These are your dreams at stake. I cannot sit idly by and watch you fall into ruin."

The boy admitted, touching his thumb gingerly to the raised, gilded edges of the object, "I don't know what I am doing anymore…."

"Hormones, aren't they a funny thing?" Gino chuckled over to their female companion. As if on cue, Anya produced a horrible, choked wail that the others could have only assumed as _laughter._ A little unnerved by the noise, the fairy man returned to his charge.

"If you really want your wishes for a new and glorious nation of peace to come true, protect that princeling boy of yours at all costs," he said strictly.

"That's not why I am protecting Lelouch."

Gino batted his crystal blue eyes with attentive confusion.

"I love him," Suzaku said simply, drawing the mask around his face.

He then pulled it back up, grinning suddenly, "…by the way, Gino, you didn't happen to bring the Lancelot along… did you?"

 

*


	10. sheesh, someone had a power trip

*

**Chapter Ten**

*

 

He awoke from a drowning. What felt like full-fledged asphyxiation by a mere cloth of medicine ( _it smelled overpoweringly of an astringent medicine, thick in his throat; Lelouch could hear through the dark bliss that the servants were apprehensive and calling for him; someone soothed them with a honeyed voice until he couldn't hear them any longer)._

Lelouch wrinkled his nose, willing his senses to overcome another fit of unconsciousness. His head and back seemed to be flat to a stone-paved floor. His opening eyes confirmed his surroundings as they adjusted to the soft, frosted light of the emptied Bower (he remembered it as a withdrawing room in the past for Guinevere).

Several concerns rang as out-of-place in this already questionable scene — his russet, metal-thread garnished waistcoat and long-sleeved undershirt were unbuttoned and thrust open from neck to navel — his hidden, silver-coated boot dagger was twirling in the hands of another — and those hands… _no…_

"I fear I may have put too much in the mixture," Kanon observed disappointed from his propped up position on the unmoving boy. "I was really hoping for some struggling." As if encouraging the notion, the heir of the Waldestein estate fondled the tip of the dagger on the dip of Lelouch's displayed throat.

" _What are you… doing_?" the prince mumbled, feeling the dagger shivery and dangerous to his flesh.

"Oh, don't do that, your Grace. It is _delectable_ how your face is right now." Kanon's equally cold, bony fingers traced a lecherous path down the bare triangle of Lelouch's chest. Lelouch's face twisted up and flushed when the same fingers paused over the space between his stomach and his ribs. "I wonder what other arousing noises you will make when I do this…—"

As if by magic, Kanon's cane on his hip-holster rose into the air and hurriedly unscrewed itself, unsheathing a slender, steel sword on its own. Also at the moment, a new arrival made himself known, discarding something to bounce against the wall ( _flashing— green and gold and copper—_ ), and leveling the point of the steel sword in his right hand to the side of Kanon's neck.

"Remove yourself from him," Suzaku hissed. " _Now_."

With all the sereneness and dignity towards his noble nature, the now smirking man obeyed, careful not to run into his own blade as Suzaku maneuvered him away from the prone boy on the floor. If Lelouch could have commanded his own muscles, he would seek to ease his enraged savior half kneeling, and using his free hand to aid Lelouch into an upright position, cradling what he could of him.

Lelouch insisted with a cheek buried into Suzaku's shirt, " _Not poisoned… I'm fine_."

"Why would I poison my pet?" Kanon offered from the corner he was backed into, tossing his turkish-rose hair from his face. He continued to look humored as his relative glared heatedly at him. "I must know however…... How did _you_ —a _Japanese_ commoner—ever manage to slip around security to gain entrance?"

When he moved forward to him, Lelouch summoned the strength to snatch Suzaku's collar, growling, "I will not suffer to see another person I love die. Do you understand me, Suzaku? I will not tolerate it!" There was anger, _yes_ , but there was more complexity divulged in his purple eyes; _penetrating fear; a hardened wound cracking open._

"Have you not ordered me to stay alive?" Suzaku replied, grinning thoughtfully until the other released him with slow and irritated reluctance, "After all, I would not dare disobey my Prince's orders."

At first, Lelouch narrowed his eyes coolly at him — with a similarly indignant fashion, he returned to Suzaku's breathing space, bestowing a short-lived, closed kiss to his mouth. The black-haired boy muffled a confounded yelp into Suzaku's demanding mouth that swooped low against his, as tan, zealous fingers crawled into Lelouch's hair, as if the other could not physically get enough of him.

"…I'm coming back for more," Suzaku informed him mildly, pushing Lelouch to the safety of the opposite side of the room before approaching his stepbrother inching his way to the exit. He edged the sword closer to Kanon.

"I think you have some explaining to do about my Father…"

"Must we? It is such a _boring_ subject…"

"Suzaku, don't…" Lelouch warned perceptively behind the trembling boy as Kanon rolled his eyes at him, "You know he's only trying to upset you…"

"I know," Suzaku answered, taking in a deep inhale and straightening his extended arm. "I was framed for my Father's murder. I heard it from Bradley. Who was it, Kanon?" When Kanon's smirk widened deliberately, Suzaku felt his arm begin to shake again. " _Who was it, you miserable—_?"

—a whoosh of air went past his ear. A strangled voice cried out for him to duck.

It barely registered as his stepfather came at him from what seemed like _thin air_ fast with his own drawn sword. Suzaku managed to parry the lunge at his head, but not for the one towards his leg, and clutched to the injury on his calf; _stinging; seeping with liquid heat_ ; as the older man faltered from his defensive position, wheezing into his embellished platinum and velvet sleeve.

"Ignorant boy _…_ " Charles cursed with a choke, dabbing his perspiring brow with a linen handkerchief, "…you were better off as a mindless servant…"

"But I was never mindless! I have felt _every_ single wrong you have dealt on me!" Suzaku seethed ( _a familiar piercing sensation in the left side of his chest rising steadily_ ). "If I did not murder my Father than who _…_? You had made me believe as a _child_ that I had murdered him so he could not destroy both nations… and that that terrible deed would bring peace onto the people!"

"War only creates more war, you naive Eleven. Your parents were good-for-nothing meddlers in an affair that was far greater and far more fragile than they could have possibly imagined."

" _What_ …?" Suzaku asked, shaking his head in disbelief. " _What_ affair are you speaking of?"

"Your parents threatened the nobleman's way of life. _Our_ way of life." Dark, stale eyes narrowed. "Unlike what the people of the kingdom have been informed of… there is no large supply of mineral sakurite to mine from the mountains or in the lands that the Eleven's horde over."

A disturbed silence fell.

Lelouch broke it, horrified, "…what do you mean there is none?"

"I mean, boy, the supply of mineral sakurite that we need to survive lies under the heart of this soil Britannia claimed in Area Eleven, in our kingdom, and also under the Britannian Royal Castle. Their discovery of the truth of this location and the pressing need to make this public led to their demise," Charles said this with hints of displeasure and malicious pride intermingled together. "As soon as your simpering, _blood traitor_ of a Mother opened her mouth to me about the accused affair—"

_(his breathing constricted hand grappling to his throat double barrel gun pressing)—_

_(pressing to his chest his tight chest his Mother screaming)—_

_(screaming a puddle under Father not moving Father red wet iridescent drops on Mother's flowers)—_

_(flowers her flowers her wildflowers our home and a bejeweled ringed hand on the gun's trigger dark eyes velvet tunic Uncle)—_

_(Uncle why does it hurt)—_

"—I made my decision. The secret would die with them. Our nobility could not be tarnished."

Suzaku dropped his sword with a _clang_ , sinking down and gripping his hair between his fingers. "…you killed them. You did it." He yielded to a helpless moan and squeezed his anguishing, emerald eyes shut. "I remember it. _I remember everything_. How did I— _I_ —"

Kanon strolled past his crumpling stepbrother with a ridiculous amount of confidence.

"Is widdle baby Cinder-aku going to cry for his dead Mommy and Daddy? You are so weak, fool…"

His mocking was interrupted by the sound of a fist pounding the Bower's wall.

Lelouch curled his upper lip, unrestricted loathing evident in his expression. " _Shut up_ …"

"You would do best to listen to the princeling, my son—if not for you, our intentions would have not have been revealed," Charles chided patiently, turning those dark eyes on spiteful violet. This man was everything Lelouch wished to never become. He could see it as plain as day.

"This will interest you, I am sure. Your esteemed parents believe that the Eleven's once proud empire prowled, seeking blood in the Britannian citizens because of a plot carried out by Britannia to murder Genbu Kuruugi. His untimely death by my hands resulted in our glorious kingdom chaining down of the Elevens to prevent riots and in turn kindled the suspicious natures of them against our bounteous government. "

Lelouch grimaced. " _Your_ status as a noble was not worth creating this war!" he shouted.

"Nobility is the only thing that matters in our decaying society, young man."

Lelouch opened his mouth to retort and stopped when Suzaku yelled suddenly from the other side of the room, " _DON'T YOU DARE HURT HIM_!" and Kanon rushed towards him, grinning manically. Gunfire. So close Lelouch's ears rang. A woman shouting orders over the ringing.

He watched Kanon's knife slip clattering to the dripping, blood-slew paved stones.

Their saviors, the Royal Knights swarmed the Bower _("Knightmares"_ , his darling Nunnally frowned disapprovingly at his usage of the phrase; _"they are only people like us, Lelouch, with flaws—they only act on OUR orders, and if their actions are wrong—then OUR orders are wrong")_ with their arms presented, hurrying past the nervous servants and a stern-looking Cornelia, and detaining a struggling Charles.

Numb to any action or question from the soldiers, Lelouch then watched the lingering bits of life die from smiling, powder-blue eyes.

 

*

 

By the cracks of fading sunlight from the shackled exterior cellar door, Kaguya crawled to the large crate to where she found her sitting companion.

"How is your shoulder?"

"The bullet grazed it. I managed to bind the gash," Tohdoh said, her little, pale hand wrapping around his much more aged. "It is lucky that the boy is so reckless."

She spoke venomously, "I'm going to _kill_ him when he comes down here for us."

"This is the first time I have ever heard you speak of murder so freely." The tone in the man's voice was that of sour disgruntlement.

As one of the head of the Six Houses, on her coronation of sorts, Kaguya had sworn to never harm another living creature for the frest of her days and to seek pacifism in conflict. If something happened truly rattled her, it had gone too far against her beliefs of justice.

"He's a _monster—_ why should we just take _—_!—?"

Heavy footfall. Overhead. On the floorboards above their heads. Kaguya bid herself silent, gripping his hand with strain. The shackles on the interior cellar door shifted apart, and the doors flung open to stream in the yellow-pinkish sunlight peeking in from the windows of the manor's kitchen. A tallish figure bathed in that light walked stiffly on one of his legs, walking intentionally for them…

"Suzaku!" She cried out, almost tackling her cousin on the bottom stair.

His tan face did not register her happiness but one of his arms carefully circled her back accompanied with a small squeeze.

"I'm sorry it took so long," he said monotonously to them, "There were a lot of explanations. It's safe to come upstairs now." He let Kaguya go and started shuffling back up the steep cellar staircase. Kaguya followed after, throwing a worried glance over her cloaked shoulder at Tohdoh.

"Where is the boy?" The Japanese man asked.

"Bradley?" Suzaku answered simply with the same monotone, "He's been detained upstairs."

And there he was indeed… the burly Waldestein man thrashed with rope-bound ankles and wrists at the feet of several Knightmares.

One of them saluted a nearby Lelouch crossing his arms, requesting that he ride back to the Britannian Royal Castle for his parent's assistance on some "dire matters requiring his immediate presence". The Britannian prince — _of course, within his character_ — ignored authority. When he spotted Suzaku rising from the depths of the suffocating cellar, came alongside him. When Suzaku stumbled over an overturned, spilling vase on the floor, the other boy motioned that he could secure him to his feet, and restrained himself from indulging that thought when Suzaku caught himself and continued on walking.

As Suzaku passed Bradley, he spit viciously in his direction.

"Gag him," Lelouch ordered the guards, tossing them a knotted scrap of patterned fabric on a table nearby.

"You got off easy," the green-eyed boy blandly informed him, "… _Kanon didn't_."

Eggplant-colored eyes widened briefly up at him, following him with his concerned companions, at that statement.

 

*

 

"…What happens now?" Kaguya whispered, petting her stallion in the shelter of the outside stables, a couple minutes of letting Suzaku's recite the transpired events.

"There's trouble with the population." Lelouch released a tired groan into his hands, leaning to the knob post at the entrance. "We can't very well just move the entirety of the kingdom into the wild of the mountains and lands beyond it… but we _can_ 't stay because the sakurite needs to be mined… "

"Who says you can't move?"

Suzaku said musingly, causing Lelouch to removed his hands and stare outright in disbelief. "No. Really," he proclaimed. "If it has to be temporarily… the mountains are very fertile and the lands produces so much that hunger and famine for any large population is virtually nonexistent. The possibility exists at least until another town can be built."

"But will the people go with that idea, Suzaku? Will the Japanese be willing to help us relocate and aid us in creating shelter?"

"...There is a larger issue between Britannia's heavy influences over Japanese affairs…" Suzaku argued, but as he spoke, a smile blossomed on his face, "if the monarchy itself was symbolically disassembled… and representatives from both sides could try to form a government based on what the voices of the people want…. You could get the people to try at least…"

Glancing at Lelouch's expression, he blushed a little in embarrassment.

"…...is it that terrible of an idea?" He glanced then at the others who gaped with similarly awestruck expressions.

"This is— _wonderful_!" Lelouch exclaimed, clearly thrilled as he lunged at him, holding his face in place as Lelouch planted a loud kiss to his forehead. "Suzaku, you are— _brilliant_!" The Japanese boy let out a weak laugh, feeling his heart skip a beat. Or two. His thoughts stirring with agitation.

_That fluttery feeling in his stomach returned tenfold._

 

*

 

"I always did like the countryside better…"

Lady Marianne made a pleased noise in the Lord and Ladies' chamber, as some of the more robust servants shuffled around each other and her in a purposeful rhythm, heaving along their personal belongings. "I am _elated_ that we decided to move to that secluded summer-home outside the Kyoto region. I can finally garden the way I want."

"I could not agree more, my love," Jeremiah said good-naturedly to her, and then gawked astonished at her fierce vigor when she plucked a small, brown packaged box of his curios from an unflinching servant who halted and waited for an order from her, "What are you _doing_? There is no need—"

"— _to raise a single finger_? I would prefer to use my hands at some point." Her womanly voice took on a sultry tone, "Besides… _no one_ has permission to handle my husband's package except for me." When that lovely dark red flushed over his coffee-colored cheeks, she smirked, shooing the servant, and acknowledged Lelouch coming in from the corridor, "Are you here to assist us, darling?"

"With most of your siblings being absent with the exception of Cardine and Euphemia…" The ex-King smiled gently at the boy, linking an arm with his wife. "We expect you to stay with us as well."

"…What of Cornelia?"

"She is busy with the military dealings. Weeding out the administrators who would put a halt to progression with the..." Jeremiah tested out the new word to his politically correct vocabulary, " _Japanese_. There is a likely chance she may not live with us and remain in Tokyo for the political dealings." Lelouch started to smirk as his father continued with a mirrored one, "We also suspect that her precious Guilford summons most of her attention these trying days."

Their son nodded, without a hint of sarcasm, sweeping into a low bow to his parents.

"…I will consider your request to live with you, Mother, Father." His large, violet eyes met that of his Mother's. The staring contest held long until Lady Marianne caved, coming forward to crush her son around his neck with a loving hug, and nuzzling his baby-fine hair with obvious affection.

"Mmm—wha— _MOOOOM_ —!" Lelouch let out a squeaky whine, and wrestled her away, retreating. She laid a paled, ringed hand on her bosom, and sighing comforted.

"You _…_ are what I have to compete with for my son's love…" Jeremiah shook his head sadly at her triumphant grin. "What ever has our family amounted to…?"

 

*

 

It was harder to maneuver with his wounded leg on top of his healing left side. Suzaku felt a stab of faint pain when resting his heel flat to the ground and clutched the crown-paneled armrest of the Bower's only piece of furniture ( _a luxurious gold and blue-fabric bench_ ), leaning heavily on it before dropping his full weight on it.

But… it could have been far worse…

His emerald eyes strayed from the ridged, gold-leaf object in his free hand he had bent down to scoop up— over to the huge, browning splatter drying on the stone-paved floor. He could have ended up… "You kept it after all this time," the intruder on his privacy observed from the chamber door.

A solemn hue of violet eyes locked on the eye mask in Suzaku's curling, calloused hands.

"I threw it away actually…" He snorted at the remembrance of crystal, blond wings. "But… someone _extremely_ annoying reminded me that this was still important to me after all. And it saved you and me in the end." Suzaku felt Lelouch's attentive hand touch his gripping the mask, not looking up.

Lelouch admitted, "Even now… for the life of me, I cannot figure you out, Suzaku Kuruugi…"

"Is it really necessary that you do?"

The dark-haired boy shook his head. "It's fascinating…" He pushed a finger possessively under Suzaku's chin to lift his face, and with deft and nostalgic fingers, smoothed the mask to the space of Suzaku's eyes and eyebrows. "You are nothing like I would expect. Perhaps it was a blessing that we met that day in the market," he spoke.

"…You threw the orange, didn't you?" At this statement from the other, Lelouch smiled arrogantly.

"Someone had to do _something_ about that ugly brute of an ox…"

Suzaku let out an amused chuckle, grinning widely, the action crinkling the tannish, delicate flesh around those striking eyes of his exposed by the eye holes of the mask. Eyes that were much more… _gorgeous_ when laughing.

" _There_ …" Lelouch fought down a dry gulp. _(What was the matter with him? He was a prince after all… composure was required…)_ "There is no longer a requirement in our family to be forcibly betrothed. I am free to seek… my own… _fortune_ …" He trailed off as the other boy moved closer to him, still grinning.

"That is disappointing," Suzaku said, teasingly brooding, "How paramount would it have appeared in the eyes of the nations's people if the male heir of Britannia's royal linage— joined forces, _so to speak_ — with the head of the Kuruugi House?"

"I…" Lelouch's dry throat did not aid him further, his fingers on Suzaku's face twitched. "I _suppose_ it would… in the political sense…"

When the other boy laughed again, Lelouch frowned offended.

"…?"

"Lelouch… I'm going to let you in on a little secret…"

Barely having to inch in, Suzaku's lips brushed his, parting to whisper, _"I'm attempting at to court you… and you are making it very difficult for me_ …"

"I- _idiot_!" Lelouch lurched away, causing Suzaku scramble to catch his mask from falling into his lap. He stammered, delighting his companion with his angry blushing, "Then find a different manner to do it, you stubborn fool!"

"Yes, my Prince."

 

*

 

_(And so…)_

Cinder-aku overcame some cultural obstacles, faced down his personal demons, and managed to do it all along with winning the sardonic, reluctant heart of his beloved Prince Charming. Would this happen in real life?... who knows… people are extraordinary.

 

*

 

You may not fit the mold of that slightly-wayward-but-ultimately-becoming female protagonist…

…but that doesn't make _your_ story any less interesting.

 

*


	11. and then there were babies

*

**Extra #1: Little Red Riding Hood**

*

 

It was _certainly_ the strangest thing to experience role-reversal.

The move to the summer house was well under way and what remained of the Britannian Royal Family in Japan spent their few remaining days in the Britannian Royal Castle with idyllic felicity. Wandering the corridors, Lelouch happened upon something _certainly_ strange. A tall, slender figure swathed in a rich red, velvet cape attempting to climb one of the private solar windows, scrambling with feminine fingers clutching hard at the edgings.

"Going somewhere, sister dearest?" Lelouch asked, catching the embroidered hem of the cape.

A pair of lavender eyes peeked at him sullenly through the hood as she turned her head over her shoulder.

" _Out_ ," came a short, offhanded murmur.

"…Oh?" He waited with an even grin as she found more solid footing on the ledge to stare at him warily, and then he pressed with no ill will towards her, "Recovered so soon from heartbreak?" She shrugged at the observation.

"I've realized that I am young and I do not know what love is or the full extent of living." Euphemia said, an uncharacteristically devious sparkle in her stare, "I intent on finding it out myself." With this, he let go of the cloak, grinning much to her surprise.

"Don't leave off the path. Get back to Grandma's house before nightfall."

She rolled her eyes semi-sarcastically. "Hilarious, Lelouch. Do you have any more quips? Maybe about the big bad wolves lurking in the courtyard?"

"I'm serious. Get back by sunset—" As he finished his sentence, Euphemia took a flying leap from the second story, rustling her pink skirts in the updraft. Panicked, Lelouch almost sent himself headfirst to follow her and breathed a small sigh of relief as an extremely astonished and confused Suzaku cradled the beaming girl who had fallen from thin air. She bounded from his strong, tan arms and disappeared into the hedges of the morning sunshine-kissed West gardens.

From the above solar window, Lelouch waved a little at the green-eyed boy who frowned up at him but waved back, gesturing to enter the castle. Lelouch nodded, going for the door and hesitated when he found his way blocked by Lady Shirley, a doubtful look to her freckled features.

"May I have a moment of your time, your Highness?"

When he agreed, she joined him in the room after a moment. Her delicate, freckled hands folded themselves behind her thin, ribbon-corseted back. Lelouch said as an awkward silence fell upon them, "You _can_ call me Lelouch… I believe I've already insisted on this and there is no need for…"

"—What are your feelings for me?" Shirley glanced at him sharply. A bright blush overtook him.

" _Wh_ —?"

Ignoring its presence, she tilted her head with contemplation, her orange spirals cascading. "I suppose the more appropriate question to pose to you then is what your feelings are towards Suzaku…?"

" _Wh—_ what— _he_ —I— _we're_ —but— _how did you_ —?"

Her olive green eyes lit up mildly as she scowled, rapping the top of his head with her folded, feathered fan. "You are _terrible_ … Haven't you confessed to that boy yet…? Do us both a favor and let him know of your intentions. It is not a pleasurable to be left wondering if someone thinks of you…"

Guilt stole over him like a wave.

"… _I'm sorry_."

It subsided as her little arms sprang around him.

Lelouch blinked into the sudden, warm hug until she pulled away from it, cheerfully.

"You needn't feel so. I have already forgiven you." Her cheerful demeanor stretched out as her smile did, almost… _wolfishly_ … and it sent a chill down his spine. "It would be in your best interests to sway him now. If you do not soon, someone else may find his benevolent and fair nature to be quite… _alluring_ …"

As if on cue, Suzaku appeared from the corridor, stepping in and smiling in his canonly infectious way— " _There you are, Lelou—_ …!"— and was gently pushed sideways by the Britannian prince who thrust Suzaku's hand behind his slim back and laced their fingers together possessively. For the second time that day, the confused Japanese boy stared at his obviously distracted companions who in turn stared pointedly at each other with enigmatic (at least to him) expressions.

Never wavering on her practiced graces as a noble-girl, Shirley curtsied to both boys and headed out.

Once she was halfway down the corridor, she clapped her hands together in congratulations to herself.

Now it was all up to Lelouch…

 

 

 

*

**Extra #2: Little Bo Peep and her Sheep**

*

 

Suzaku did not think he could have been more nervous than he was presently.

The _eri_ and _tomoeri_ of his kimono were of course less restricting than neck collars in his Britannian clothes, but yet, they were… _foreign_. He felt like a self-conscious and remorseful child caught playing with something he shouldn't have and waiting for judgment from his guardians.

The many unblinking and harsh eyes pinned on him in the room were not helping the matter.

"It has been quite some time since the Six Houses have seen your face, Suzaku Kuruugi." He kept to his bowed position on the decorative floor. "Why have you called upon us?" When Suzaku spoke up at first, Taizo commanded him irritably that he lift his head from the floor.

From one of the six chairs seated in front of him, his cousin smiled sweetly and encouragingly in his direction. He felt his nerves steady for a moment. "I have important matters to discuss with the leaders of our nation," Suzaku felt his voice strengthen. "Under voluntary confessions of the Britannian nobleman Charles Waldestein, my uncle, he revealed to both myself and Lelouch vi Britannia the location of the minable sakurite—"

Taizo's wrinkled visage deepened with a wide smile. "We are already aware of this." Suzaku's green eyes widened with shock. "We planned on holding this over the heads of the ambassadors of the Britannian kingdom, namely Lelouch vi Britannia's parents."

"…but _why_? Shouldn't there be peaceful negotiations? To aid the citizens living on the mining land?"

Identical smiles to Taizo's spouted on the tan faces of other members of the Six Houses save Kaguya.

"You are young and naïve, Suzaku Kuruugi. They stole our lands and gave us nothing but a _number_."

Suzaku's lips parted.

He replied dazedly to their eyes and cruel, knowing smiles, "My uncle killed my parents and caused this war… why do you pretend that you cannot see this?"

"Your uncle was a _Britannian_."

An awful, severing silence fell over the room. This was how deep the hatred between the two nations had seeped. Suzaku glanced then helplessly at Kaguya who remained unmoved in her seat, her little, pale hands folded lady-like in her lap, but her emerald eyes sent him a worried message.

While everyone else was distracted, what sounded distinctly like a _poof!_ popped from behind one of the sliding doors to the room followed by a thin brume of green and diamond glass sparkles curling up from the bottom opening of the door. " _Excuse me_!" yelled someone from behind the door.

Unceremoniously, the sliding door was thrust open by a tall, blond man in what looked like a knee-length and very fluffy white-and-pink apron-dress and a matching bonnet tied under his chin. The ridiculously long, white knee-high laced boots and stockings and giant white cane had been a bit much.

But no one was complaining seeing as they were mainly confused by his sudden appearance.

"Who the _devil_ are you?" demanded Taizo, standing up enraged.

"Excuse me… have you seen my sheep anywhere?" The crowd sweatdropped as Gino smiled pleasantly at them, and he turned to Suzaku with an over-exaggerated wink. He turned away and clapped his lacy-gloved hands as his crystal blue eyes stopped over on Taizo. "Ah. There she is."

Anya, adorably fleecy one-piece costume and all, stopped from stooping over an raiding a nearby desk.

She trotted over to the beaming man who took the rolled up document from her right hand.

"You naughty girl, you," Gino chided her softly, patting the top of her pink head. "What did you find?" The blond man unrolled the slip of paper, examining its contents. His yellow wings fluttered as Gino hissed air through his teeth in a mock-wince. " _Oooh_ … this looks like nasty business, mister…"

To Suzaku's astonishment, an outraged blush started to cover Taizo's face.

"What _authority_ do you have in these sorts of affairs…?"

"I'm looking out for my charge." The smile on Gino's face darkened over. "No more and no less. There seems to be an issue here of _biased opinion_. What my charge is offering is a chance to put the ugly past beyond you and to give a good name to your organization. Now… are you willing to listen…?"

A grunt. The Japanese man sat down reluctantly. A flurry of murmurs.

Gino did a small pirouette around the room, making sure to stare into every pair of eyes. "Gentlemen, all in favor of hearing this young lad out?" Taking the silence as agreement, the blond man gave a long, lazy grin to Suzaku who grinned back thankfully. "I think they are all ears now…"

 

 

 

*

**Extra #3: Snow White**

*

 

The cracking in the iced-over creek alerted him in the woods to the small girlish form teetering precariously. Agonizing seconds past by of her dropping heavily through the snow and ice coating the creek and straight into the freezing black waters with a breathless scream.

" _CARDINE_!" His heart thudded with adrenaline on reaching her across the bank. He missed her flailing, clawing hand poking from the choppy water by inches and abandoned his overcoat to jump into the waters. Lelouch blindly groped in the numbing darkness and his fingertips brushed an oversized, gold bangle before seizing her wrist attached to it. Breaking the surface of the creek, Lelouch hauled her body onto snowy ground, shivering violently and gulping in precious air his lungs howled for.

Motionless, she laid out with his hands flat to her sides, eyes closed and lips spread. The only color to her entire body was those faintly pink lips. She was white. White as the snow. Lelouch shook her, watching with sickened horror as her dripping head flopped uselessly backwards and forwards.

"Cardine… _Cardine_! Wake up! You have to…wake up!"

( _it can't again it can't be)_

"You…can't…" He trailed off, feeling his words slip from him. Setting her little head back down on his dry overcoat, Lelouch tilted her chin up and spread her lips apart wider, placing his mouth to hers to puff small breathes until he could feel his hands on her ribs begin to rise.

Several more times and Cardine came back into consciousness, shivering and gulping as he had.

"…you stupid little brat… _what were you thinking…_?" He muttered, holding her tightly to his soaked chest, her girlish arms tightening around him as her breathing steadied, "I could have lost you too…" She started wailing, sobbing into the wet fabric of his shirt, the muffled sounds growing in strength as her energy returned to her. And he could only hold her to him, without the warmth of a human body, and biting back the hot strain of tears gathering at the corners of his eyes.

Her own dark navy eyes glittered sleepily in her bedroom later that evening, pinning him to his hunched spot in the wood chair beside her. "… _sorry_." She murmured this, her long hair dried and spread like a pool of bright red upon her pillow and he squeezed her hand between his.

"I miss Nunnally," her voice was tiny and he was sure she is trying not to cry. "I was mean to her all the time… but I didn't want her to die, Lelouch…"

" _I know_." His knuckles turned white. "Let's visit her grave sometime before the mining team destroys the castle grounds. Would you like to do that with me?"

"… _okay_."

 

 

 

*

**Extra #4: Rumpelstiltskin**

*

 

"—and I'd like to be called _Kaguya-sama_ for the duration of it." He heard a low sigh escape Lelouch.

"If that is what will please you…"

"I want you to practice saying it with me," she insisted with a self-satisfied leer, raising her hands to emphasize each syllable to her name. " _KAGUYA…?_   What comes after that then?"

"…- _sama_."

"It is not so difficult, now is it?" She overlooked the deadpan to Lelouch's tone and glanced at Suzaku hanging in the doorway. "Keep practicing." The black-haired girl grinned silently at her befuddled cousin before passing him with a swirl of dark cloak and braids.

"What was that, Lelouch?" he asked curiously, flopping down on a creaky wooden stool. Creaky was okay. It sounded homey. Finally moving out into the outskirts of Japan and living alone with Lelouch in their very own abandoned, country cottage had its merits on their… _relationship_. (Whatever it was, Suzaku was not completely sure as of yet. But they preferred often to wake up in the mornings with intertwined hands.)

Lelouch squeezed the bridge of his nose, waving a hand at him.

"Don't worry about it. I've… asked a rather large favor of her and I am starting to reconsider my decision..."

"Favor?"

"I… didn't intent for you to find out this way…"

Suzaku wasn't sure he liked that sentence. "Lelouch?"

When he rose to his feet, the other man backed away and into the nearby kitchen table, blushing a little.

"Suzaku… you and I are both men…"

"That is indeed truth," Suzaku spoke as if he were informing the other that the sky was blue. Or that Euphemia's hair was curly. Or that apples from the tree out back fell up and not down.

"And we've been together for almost two years now…"

"Indeed we have."

"That's…" Lelouch's breath caught. "It is difficult for two men to…" The blush reddened further. Suzaku felt a smile creep on his lips. "D-Did you ever consider having a family with me, Suzaku?" He tensed when Suzaku did not agree but merely gaped at him.

"When we both decide we are ready for… a family… I have asked Kaguya if she would be a surrogate mother to us. She agreed with some," Lelouch muttered cranky, violet eyes narrowing as he rubbed the back of his neck, " _conditions_ to follow but I believe she will uphold her end of the bargain…" Lelouch blinked and his face flamed up hotter than before as his companion seized him up by the shirt collar and pulled him close to his chest.

With a finger under Lelouch's chin, Suzaku tilted his face up and traced a small, moist kiss to the corner of his closed mouth.

"You…"

Suzaku's soft mouth touched the opposite corner, mouthing the words into his cool skin.

"are…"

Lelouch gulped back an wordless moan, his hands crawling up Suzaku's shoulders and gripping tightly as those zealous lips overtook his.

" _amazing_ …"

"I would love to have children with you, Lelouch."

 

*


End file.
